Inability of red blood cells from hyperlipemic patients to adapt to lysolecithin 1

Abstract

Lysolecithin induces a disc-echinocyte transformation at the moment of contact with normal red cells. This is accompanied by a transient increase in the viscosity of red-cell suspensions, which returns spontaneously to normal during prolonged contact with lysolecithin. Since metabolic processes of the red cell are involved in the normalization of viscosity, the term “red-cell adaptation” is used for this property. The present paper shows that red-cell adaptation to lysolecithin is absent in hyperlipemic patients. In addition, 25% of the latter had less deformable red cells in freshly drawn venous blood samples. Interpretation of the mechanisms involved in red-cell adaptation and its failure leads to the assumption that there may be a link between reversible (by lysolecithin) and irreversible (in venous blood) reductions of red-cell deformability.