The Effect of a Direct Electric Current on Normal and Antibody-sensitized Red Cells.

During experiments on the effect of direct electric currents on red cells suspended in saline an unexpected phenomenon was observed. Normal red cells showed agglutination and lysis, but if the red cells had been sensitized by antibodies there was a marked difference in the degree of agglutination and lysis. Samples of red cells which had been treated with " blocking " Rhesus antibody (anti-D and anti-CD), of the cells of an infant suffering from erythroblastosis foetalis, and also of the cells of a case of atypical haemolytic anaemia (Boorman, Dodd, and Loutit, 1946) were included in the investigations and gave similar results.