Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
10433268 Journal of Biomechanics 2011 5 Pages PDF
Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows for high-resolution topography studies of biological cells and measurement of their mechanical properties in physiological conditions. In this work, AFM was employed to measure the stiffness of abnormal human red blood cells from human subjects with the genotype for sickle cell trait. The determined Young's modulus was compared with that obtained from measurements of erythrocytes from healthy subjects. The results showed that Young's modulus of pathological erythrocytes was approximately three times higher than in normal cells. Observed differences indicate the effect of the polymerization of sickle hemoglobin as well as possible changes in the organization of the cell cytoskeleton associated with the sickle cell trait.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Engineering Biomedical Engineering
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