Author/Editor		Iglič, Aleš; Kralj-Iglič, Veronika; Haegerstrand, Henry
Title		Amphiphile induced echinocyte-spheroechinocyte transformation of red blood cell shape
Type		članek
Source		Eur Biophys J
Vol. and No.		Letnik 27
Publication year		1998
Volume		str. 335-9
Language		eng
Abstract		A possible physical explanation of the echinocyte-spheroechinocyte red blood cell (RBC) shape transformation induced by the intercalation of amphiphilic molecules into the outer layer of the RBC plasma membrane bilayer is given. The stable RBC shape is determined by the minimization of the membrane elastic energy, consisting of the bilayer bending energy, the bilayer relative streching energy and the skeleton shear elastic energy. It is hown that for a given relative cell volume the calculated number of echinocyte spicula increases while their size decreases as the number of the intercalated amphiphilic molecules in the outer layer of the cell membrane bilayer is increased, which is in agreement with experimental observations. Further, it is shown that the equilibrium difference between the outer and the inner membrane leaflet areas of the stable RBC shapes increases if the amount of the intercalated amphiphiles is increased, thereby verifying theoretically the original bilayer couple hypothesis of Sheetz and Singer (1974) and Evans (1974).
Descriptors		ERYTHROCYTES ERYTHROCYTE MEMBRANE CELL SIZE ELASTICITY ERYTHROCYTES, ABNORMAL INTERCALATING AGENTS LIPID BILAYERS MODELS, BIOLOGICAL SPHEROCYTES THERMODYNAMICS