On the association of lipid rafts to the spectrin skeleton in human erythrocytes

►Erythrocyte lipid rafts are tightly anchored to the spectrin membrane skeleton. ►Lipid raft binding to membrane skeleton is sensitive to pH and ionic strength. ►In erythrocyte samples contaminated by neutrophils lipid rafts are easily isolated. ►Proteases from contaminating neutrophils degrade spectrin and release lipid rafts. ►Lipid raft binding is affected by proteolysis of spectrin, not protein 4.1 or ankyrin.