K+ released from exercising muscle via K+ channels needs to be removed from the interstitium into the blood to maintain high muscle cell membrane potential and allow normal muscle contractility. Uptake by red blood cells has been discussed as one mechanism that would also serve to regulate red blood cell volume, which was found to be constant despite increased plasma osmolality and K+ concentra...

We investigate the physics of an optically trapped red blood cell under physiological conditions. When a single, live red blood cell, is placed in an optical trap, the normal biconcave disk shaped cell is observed to undergo a folding action and thereby take up a rod like shape. If such an RBC has any shape anisotropies due to perturbation through malarial infection or hyperosmotic stress, it i...

BACKGROUND Impaired red blood cell deformability may play a key role in the pathogenesis of chronic vascular complications of diabetes mellitus and progression of renal failure. The present study was conducted to test whether impaired red blood cell deformability is indeed associated with development of diabetic nephropathy. METHODS We studied 57 adult type 2 diabetic patients divided into th...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Mean platelet volume is the measurement of the average size of platelets in the blood, and red blood cell distribution width is the variability of the size of red blood cells in circulation. This study aimed to investigate if there was any relationship between mean platelet volume, red blood cell distribution, and epistaxis. STUDY DESIGN Prospective controlled trial. M...

Biochemists and cell biologists, who are interested in membranes, tend to regard the human red blood cell ambivalently. On one hand, red blood cells lack nuclei and the various intracellular organelles, yet that are highly specialized for a particular respiratory function. On the other hand, the human red blood cell presents an excellent model for membrane transport function.

background: to investigate the association between the red cell distribution width (rdw) and mortality in patients with acute pancreatitis (ap), and to assess the ability of rdw to predict mortality in ap patients. materials and methods: this retrospective cohort study included 120 patients (50 males and 70 females) with ap who were admitted to the first affiliated hospital of zhongshan medical...

although the most common hematological disturbance in thymoma is pure red cell aplasia, pancytopenia is a very rare paraneoplastic syndrome in this disorder. we only found one case in literature reviews. we report a 36 year old female with an anterior mediastinal mass and severe pancytopenia. with a mediastinotomy incision, biopsy of the tumor was obtained. the report of the pathologist was thy...