Effects of cyclic deoxygenation of SS discocytes on the distribution of their individual cell HCs.

The discocytes were suspended at 1% Hct in solution D containing 1 mM [Ca²⁺]_o and incubated in the tonometer at 37°C in the presence of air for 10 minutes. After baseline sampling, 0.1 mM vanadate was added, and further equilibration was with air (A) or with cycles of 10 minutes of N₂ gas followed by 5 minutes of air (deoxy-oxy cycling) (B), for up to 45 minutes. Histograms were obtained with the Bayer H*3 analyzer (see “Materials and methods”). (A) HC distribution following oxy incubation for 30 minutes. The HC distribution was essentially the same as the baseline measurement before addition of vanadate. (B) HC distribution of an aliquot of the same RBC suspension–cycled deoxy-oxy for 30 minutes. Further changes after 45 minutes were negligible. The results shown are representative of 3 similar experiments.