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Kinetics of Increased Deformability of Deoxygenated Sickle Cells upon Oxygenation

Zhi Huang ^*, Leigh Hearne ^*, Cynthia E. Irby ^*, S. Bruce King , Samir K. Ballas  and Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro ^*

^* Departments of Physics and Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109 USA; and Cardeza Foundation, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 USA

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro, Tel.: 336-758-4993; Fax: 336-758-6142; E-mail: shapiro{at}wfu.edu.

We have examined the kinetics of changes in the deformability of deoxygenated sickle red blood cells when they are exposed to oxygen (O₂) or carbon monoxide. A flow-channel laser diffraction technique, similar to ektacytometry, was used to assess sickle cell deformability after mixing deoxygenated cells with buffer that was partially or fully saturated with either O₂ or carbon monoxide. We found that the deformability of deoxygenated sickle cells did not regain its optimal value for several seconds after mixing. Among density-fractionated cells, the deformability of the densest fraction was poor and didn't change as a function of O₂ pressure. The deformability of cells from the light and middle fraction increased when exposed to O₂ but only reached maximum deformability when equilibrated with supraphysiological O₂ concentrations. Cells from the middle and lightest fraction took several seconds to regain maximum deformability. These data imply that persistence of sickle cell hemoglobin polymers during circulation in vivo is likely, due to slow and incomplete polymer melting, contributing to the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease.

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