Much recent interest in the mechanism of dehydration of the dense subpopulation of sickle-cell anaemia (SS) red cells, including the 'irreversibly sickled cells' (ISCs), stems from the view that these relatively rigid cells have a major role in the two main clinical features of the disease, namely haemolytic anaemia and microvascular occlusion. The discovery that SS red cells have an elevated calcium content and accumulate Ca2+ during deoxygenation-induced sickling suggested a working hypothesis of wide appeal for the mechanism of cell dehydration: retained calcium would activate the red cell Ca2+-sensitive K+ channels, causing progressive net loss of KCl and water. However, retained calcium, which seemed as weakly bound to cytoplasmic buffers as in normal red cells, failed to show any measurable activation of K+ channels or Ca2+ pumps in metabolically normal SS cells, despite the apparent functional normality or near-normality of these transport systems. We now offer a possible explanation for this failure. We show that, contrary to the traditional views, SS cells, and to a lesser extent normal human red cells, possess intracellular vesicles with ATP-dependent Ca2+-accumulating capacity, and that nearly all the measurable calcium of fresh SS cells is contained within such vesicles, probably in the form of precipitates with inorganic or organic phosphates.

1 The effects of 5-HT3 selective agonists have been studied in whole-cell voltage-clamped NIE-115 neuroblastoma cells. 2 Application of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) results in the rapid development of a transient inward current at quasiphysiological membrane potentials. This current can be blocked by the 5-HT3 specific antagonists BRL 43694 and GR67330. 3 Application of 2-methyl-5-HT (2-Me5-HT), a 5-HT3 selective agonist, produced a qualitatively similar inward current, but with a maximum response only 20% of that produced by 5-HT. 4 In the presence of 100pM 2-Me5-HT, the upper part of the 5-HT dose-response curve was shifted to the right but reached the same maximum value as in the absence of 2-Me5-HT. 2-Me5-HT appears therefore to be a partial agonist under these conditions. 5 The novel 5-HT3 agonist, meta-chlorophenylbiguanide (mCPBG) is a full agonist, but has a Hill coefficient (1.5) significantly less than that of 5-HT (2.3). 6 Comparison with radioligand binding data show that mCBPG is 100 times less potent than expected; it may therefore exhibit a high affinity for a desensitized state.

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