Erythrocytes in the combined milieu of high glucose and high cholesterol shows glycosaminoglycan-dependent cytoadherence to extracellular matrix components

Pathological conditions are bound to affect the molecules on erythrocytes, and accordingly affect their functions. Chondroitin sulphate/dermatan sulphate (CS/DS), one of the classes of molecules found to be expressed in erythrocytes was previously observed by us to be either overexpressed in diabetic condition or undergo structural changes in hypercholesterolemic condition. Both of them had implications on their binding to extracellular matrix components (ECM). In the present work, we have explored the quantitative changes in erythrocyte glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and their role in erythrocyte binding towards ECM components in the combined milieu of both diabetes and hypercholesterolemia (SFHD). Membrane cholesterol was significantly higher in SFHD group compared to control (SFC) and diabetic groups (SFD). Interestingly, there were no quantitative changes in CS/DS compared to SFC erythrocytes, but showed significantly increased cytoadherence to selected ECM components to various extents. Binding was partly dependent on CS/DS as digesting the chains resulted in relatively decreased cytoadherence. It also showed significantly increased binding to chondroitin sulphate and heparan sulphate. Thus, combined milieu of high glucose and high cholesterol can have more deleterious consequences than either of them independently.