Abstract
Nitric Oxide (NO) has been suggested to modulate the deformability of red blood cells (RBCs). Bor-Kucukatay (
Bor-Kucukatay et al.
) found that cells incubated with 1 μM of the NO donor sodium nitroprusside lead to a small but significant increase RBC deformability as measured by ektacytometry. However, no significant effect was seen at lower or higher concentrations of sodium nitroprusside or for any concentration of another NO donor, diethylenetriamine NONOate. Kleinbongard (Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol
284
: H1577
, 2003
Kleinbongard et al.
) found large increases in red cell deformability as a function of added arginine (the substrate for Nitric Oxide Synthase) by measuring the flow rate through filters. On the other hand, using cell aspiration techniques, Bateman (Bateman et al. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 280; H2848 H2001) found that NO production during sepsis causes a decrease in RBC deformability. Clearly more work is needed to determine the effects of NO on RBC deformability.Blood
10
; 3992
, 2005
The present work was undertaken to further investigate the effect of NO on normal and sickle RBC deformability. ProLi NONOate, arginine, and nitrite (which can be reduced to NO by hemoglobin (Hb), were incubated with blood at various concentrations over a period of 2 hours. Nitrosyl Hb and MetHb formed due to the interaction between NO and RBCs were quantified by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The deformability was measured using a flow channel laser diffraction similar to ektacytometry (
Huang et al.
, Am J Hematol
67
; 151
, 2001
Biophys J
85
; 2374
, 2003
Disclosure: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
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2006, The American Society of Hematology
2006
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