Thermally induced transformation of mammalian red blood cells during hyperthermia

The structural and transport characteristics of membranes are mainly determined by the state of the cytoskeleton. The characteristic changes in morphology of human (adult donor and cord) and rat Red Blood Cells (RBC) and of their membrane, induced by hyperthermia (46–51 °C) have been analyzed. Two different types of morphological changes have been observed to take place during hyperthermia in all studied RBC groups. We have observed either formation and exfoliation of spiculas from membrane, resulting in the formation of large (4–5 μm) sphere-like cell body and small (0.5–1.5 μm) vesicles or cell fragmentation with formation of large (3–3.5 μm) vesicles. The two distinct phenomena are likely to be determined by the heterogeneity of the RBC population in terms of cell age. There was noted the difference of cord RBC from the donor ones in temperature value of transformation beginning, as well as the character of deformation and vesicle formation, that may testify to their less thermoresistance. The ultrastructure of the membrane, studied with the freeze-fracturing technique, testifies to an irreversible character of membrane changes. The aggregation of intramembrane particles (IMPs) as a continuous network testifies to the strengthening of the interactions between denatured spectrin and bilayer integral components.