Effect of Various Solute Concentrations on the Membrane Permeability of Rbcs in Human Blood

The development in the field of medicine has been immense in the past few decades. As the rate of diseases in humans as well as accidents is increasing, there is a constant need of the blood for the transfusion. The number of blood donors is limited, so the blood needs to be stored. A great care is needed to preserve the blood components specially RBCs. The integrity and physiology of the RBCs must be maintained to tackle the demand of blood in hospitals. A great care has to be taken to choose the possible donors with healthy blood. An increased level of the normal constituents may be harmful for the integrity of the RBCs. In the present study, the effect of abnormal levels of glucose, acetone, urea as well as saline on the membrane permeability of the RBCs was considered. These components i.e. 0.2 M glucose, 0.4 M glucose, 4% acetone, 5% acetone, 0.5% urea, 2% urea and hypotonic saline solutions, were shown to promote membrane permeability in RBCs, once RBCs were placed in them. However, the RBC membrane permeability was also found to be influenced by the temperature at which the RBCs were kept. Some solutions like 0.2% saline at 20°C, 5% saline at 20°C and 4% acetone at 20°C were found to have delayed the swelling and rupture of RBCs as compared with RBCs at 4°C and 37°C. However, 0.5% urea was seen to fasten the rupture of the RBCs at 4°C and 20°C as compared to that at 37°C where it was significantly delayed.