ABSTRACT
In the present work, a cell environment which mimicked the real body environment according to the concentration radio between serum albumin and hemoglobin was built, and the cell morphology, the membrane deformation capacity, and the structure of intracellular hemoglobin of single human living erythrocyte under the effect of pH and serum albumin were studied. It was found that at different suspension pH, the magnitude of variations in cell shape and membrane deformation capacity changes with the structural changes of the intracellular hemoglobin. At pH 4. 14, 4. 76 and 10. 18, the loss of helical structure for hemoglobin, exposing of the hydrophobic amino acid in the globin chains, and changing of the combination of heme and globin, would completely destroy the stability of hemoglobin's structure, which seriously changes RBC's morphology and membrane deformation capacity. While at pH 6. 51 and 7. 80, the Raman spectra of erythrocytes are found to have no such changes, indicating that the structure of intracellular hemoglobin was not varied, thus the cell morphology and membrane deformation capacity are quite close to the normal values. At pH 5. 49 and 8. 76, RBC's morphology and membrane deformation capacity have different degrees of variation, but the structure of intracellular hemoglobin has not changed, suggesting that the cell morphology and membrane deformation capacity may be reversible. The results suggest that in the suspension solution containing serum albumin, erythrocytes have better ability to regulate and control the variation of the extracellular pH. In summary, upon building an environment which contains the same concentration radio of serum albumin to hemoglobin in the blood, this work performed systematic studies on the effect of pH on human erythrocytes. It can not only help to solve the problems about the mechanism of the structural and functional changes of erythrocytes induced by environmental pH, but also elucidates the possible variation of the erythrocyte under different pathologic states. It is therefore significant for the prevention and treatment of some diseases.
