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Biophys. J. BioFAST: First Published December 21, 2004. doi:10.1529/biophysj.104.045328
© 2004 by the Biophysical Society.

A more recent version of this article appeared on March 1, 2005.
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MEMBRANES

Red-blood cell membrane fluctuations and shape controlled by ATP-induced cytoskeletal defects

Nir Gov 1* and Samuel A Safran 1

1 Weizmann Institute of Science

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nirgov{at}wisemail.weizmann.ac.il.

Submitted on May 9, 2004
Revised on July 8, 2004
Accepted on 1 December 2004


  Abstract
We show theoretically how ATP-induced dynamic dissociations of spectrin filaments (from each other and from the membrane) in the cytoskeleton network of red blood cells(RBC) can explain in a unified manner both the measured fluctuation amplitude as well as the observed shape transformations as a function of intracellular ATP concentration. Static defects can be induced by external stresses such as those present when RBC pass through small capillaries. We suggest that the partially freed actin at these defect sites may explain the activation of the CFTR membrane-bound protein and the subsequent release of ATP by RBC subjected to deformations. Our theoretical predictions can be tested by experiments that measure the correlation between variations in the binding of actin to spectrin, the activity of CFTR, and the amount of ATP released.

Key Words: ATP, CFTR, cell shape, cytoskeleton, erythrocyte, membrane fluctuations




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Copyright © 2004 by the Biophysical Society.