scholarly journals Ultrastructure of the intact skeleton of the human erythrocyte membrane.

1986 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 997-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
B W Shen ◽  
R Josephs ◽  
T L Steck

Filamentous skeletons were liberated from isolated human erythrocyte membranes in Triton X-100, spread on fenestrated carbon films, negatively stained, and viewed intact and unfixed in the transmission electron microscope. Two forms of the skeleton were examined: (a) basic skeletons, stripped of accessory proteins with 1.5 M NaCl so that they contain predominantly polypeptide bands 1, 2, 4.1, and 5; and (b) unstripped skeletons, which also bore accessory proteins such as ankyrin and band 3 and small plaques of residual lipid. Freshly prepared skeletons were highly condensed. Incubation at low ionic strength and in the presence of dithiothreitol for an hour or more caused an expansion of the skeletons, which greatly increased the visibility of their elements. The expansion may reflect the opening of spectrin from a compact to an elongated disposition. Expanded skeletons appeared to be organized as networks of short actin filaments joined by multiple (5-8) spectrin tetramers. In unstripped preparations, globular masses were observed near the centers of the spectrin filaments, probably corresponding to complexes of ankyrin with band 3 oligomers. Some of these globules linked pairs of spectrin filaments. Skeletons prepared with a minimum of perturbation had thickened actin protofilaments, presumably reflecting the presence of accessory proteins. The length of these actin filaments was highly uniform, averaging 33 +/- 5 nm. This is the length of nonmuscle tropomyosin. Since there is almost enough tropomyosin present to saturate the F-actin, our data support the hypothesis that tropomyosin may determine the length of actin protofilaments in the red cell membrane.

1979 ◽  
pp. 1065-1072
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Osawa ◽  
Tsutomu Tsuji ◽  
Anne Marianne Golovtchenko-Matsumoto ◽  
Tatsuro Irimura

Blood ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Palek ◽  
SC Liu ◽  
LM Snyder

Abstract The discocyte-echinocyte transformation and the decrease in deformability associated with red cell ATP depletion have been attributed to changes in the physical properties of spectrin and actin, membrane proteins located at the membrane-cytosol interface. We investigated the spontaneous formation of spectrin-rich complexes in human erythrocyte membranes, employing two-dimensional SDS- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Membranes of red cells depleted in ATP under aerobic conditions exhibited (1) an increase in components 4.5 and 8 and globin subunits, (2) a spontaneous formation of heterodimers of spectrin 1 + 2 and spectrin 2 + component 4.9, and (3) a large molecular weight (greater than 10(6) daltons) protein complex with a high spectrin to band 3 ratio. These complexes were dissociated with dithiothreitol and were prevented by anaerobic incubation or the maintenance of red cell ATP and GSH levels with glucose, adenine, and inosine. The complexes 1 + 2 and 2 + 4.9 were also seen in acetylphenylhydrazine-treated, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase- deficient fresh erythrocytes that showed marked GSH depletion but preserved greater than 70% of the original ATP level. However, membranes of these cells did not contain the greater 10(6) dalton aggregate with a high spectrin to band 3 ratio. We concluded that the formation of the latter complex results from rearrangement of spectrin and other polypeptides in membranes of ATP-depleted red cells. Under aerobic conditions, the rearranged proteins undergo spontaneous intermolecular crosslinkings through disulfide couplings.


1981 ◽  
Vol 649 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M.A.R. Dubbelman ◽  
A.F.P.M. De Goeij ◽  
K. Christianse ◽  
J. Van Steveninck

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 137-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Blaine Moore ◽  
J. F. Manery ◽  
J. Still ◽  
V. N. Mankad

The activities of acetylcholinesterase and Ca2+ + Mg2+ ATPase were measured following treatment of human erythrocyte membranes with nonsolubilizing and solubilizing concentrations of Triton X-100. A concentration of 0.1% (v/v) Triton X-100 caused a significant inhibition of both enzymes. The inhibition appears to be caused by perturbations in the membrane induced by Triton X-100 incorporation. No acetylcholinesterase activity and little Ca2+ + Mg2+ ATPase activity were detected in the supernatant at 0.05% Triton X-100 although this same detergent concentration induced changes in the turbidity of the membrane suspension. Also, no inhibition of soluble acetylcholinesterase was observed over the entire detergent concentration range. The inhibition of these enzymes at 0.1% Triton X-100 was present over an eightfold range of membrane protein in the assay indicating an independence of the protein/detergent ratio. The losses in activities of these two enzymes could be prevented by either including phosphatidylserine in the Triton X-100 suspension or using Brij 96 which has the same polyoxyethylene polar head group but an oleyl hydrophobic tail instead of the p-tert-octylphenol group of Triton X-100. The results are discussed in regard to the differential recovery of enzyme activities over the entire detergent concentration range.Key words: Triton X-100, erythrocyte membranes, acetylcholinesterase, Ca2+ + Mg2+ ATPase, polyoxyethylene detergents.


1981 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Tsukita ◽  
S Tsukita ◽  
H Ishikawa ◽  
S Sato ◽  
M Nakao

Reassociation of spectrin and actin with human erythrocyte membranes was studied by stereoscopic electron microscopy of thin sections combined with tannic acid- glutaraldehyde fixation. Treatment of the erythrocyte membrane with 0.1 mM EDTA (pH 8.0) extracted more than 90 percent of the spectrin and actin and concomitantly removed filamentous meshworks underlying the membranes, followed by fragmentation into small inside-out vesicles. When such spectrin-depleted vesicles were incubated with the EDTA extract (crude spectrin), a filamentous meshwork, similar to those of the original membranes, was reformed on the cytoplasmic surface of the vesicles. The filamentous components, with a uniform thickness of 9 nm, took a tortuous course and joined one another often in an end-to-end fashion to form a irregular but continuous meshwork parallel to the membrane. Purified spectrin was also reassociated with the vesicles in a population density of filamentous components almost comparable to that of the crude spectrin-reassociated vesicles. However, the meshwork formation was much smaller in extent, showing many independent filamentous components closely applied to the vesicle surface. When muscle G-actin was added to the crude spectrin- or purified spectrin- reassociated vesicles under conditions which favor actin polymerization, actin filaments were seen to attach to the vesicles through the filamentous components. Two modes of association of actin filaments with the membrane were seen: end-to-membrane and side-to- membrane associations. In the end-to-membrane association, each actin filament was bound with several filamentous components exhibiting a spiderlike configuration, which was considered to be the unit of the filamentous meshwork of the original erythrocyte membrane.


1982 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Marianne GOLOVTCHENKO-MATSUMOTO ◽  
Isamu MATSUMOTO ◽  
Toshiaki OSAWA

Author(s):  
Gheorghe Benga ◽  
Anthony Brain ◽  
Victor I. Pop ◽  
John Wrigglesworth

The intra-membrane particles (IMPs) observed on the fracture face of frozen erythrocyte membranes are thought to correspond primarily to “band 3” tetramers or dimers. Some recent studies correlating the inhibition of water diffusion in erythrocytes by p-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate (PCMBS) with the binding of 203Hg to erythrocyte membrane proteins has enabled band 3 and the polypeptides in band 4.5 to be identified as the proteins associated with the channels for water permeation in human erythrocytes. A further characterization of the effects of the incubation of human erythrocyte membranes with PCMBS and N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) has been performed as previously described. Experimental conditions have been previously described.A comparison was made of the appearance of freeze-etched membranes of control erythrocytes and erythrocytes with the sulphydryl reagents. It was found that on many of the control and NEM-treated cells, small (50-100 nm) elevated patches could be seen (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). These are present on both fracture and etch faces and are devoid of any intramembrane particles. The patch elevations were never observed in the membranes of PCMBS-treated cells (Fig. 4).


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