The increased lysosomal enzyme activity in gynecologic cancers, without overlapping between patients and normal subjects or benign ovarian cyst fluid, indicates that such measurements might be applied for diagnostic purposes.
Individual populations of AA and SS erythrocytes were fractionated according to cell density by centrifugation, and the fractions analysed for intracellular pH (PHi), the mole ratio of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate to haemoglobin (DPG:Hb), and cell concentration of haemoglobin (MCHC). The pHi of SS erythrocytes was consistently lower than that of AA erythrocytes throughout the density range, and the lowest pHi of both cell types (AA and SS) was found in cells with the highest density. As the highest density AA and SS erythrocytes are characterized by the lowest DPG:Hb values, their relatively low pHi cannot be ascribed to intracellular organic phosphate. Instead we propose that a redistribution of hydrogen ions across the membrane of both AA and SS erythrocytes is the ultimate result of progressive alterations in these membranes in vivo.
We have examined by electron microscopy the formation of fibers and crystals from sickle hemoglobin within sickle erythrocytes following deoxygenation during capillary storage from 1 to 132 days. Intracellular fibers were found on the first day and throughout the period of study. The fibers exhibited a diameter (mean +/- SD) of 17.4 +/- 0.62 nm and were aligned in the cell with a fiber-to-fiber spacing of 18.6 nm (x-axis) by 22.7 nm (y-axis). Between 65 and 132 days, extracellular hemoglobin crystals developed, with a lattice periodicity of 9.63 +/- 0.6 nm. Fibers and crystals coexist as separate structures. These results suggest that crystal formation upon storage of packed deoxygenated sickle erythrocytes may proceed via a phase of fiber dissolution followed by hemoglobin reassembly into extracellular crystals, rather than by a progressive alignment and direct fusion of existing fibers.
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