Blood bank storage of red blood cells increases RBC cytoplasmic membrane order and bending rigidity

Blood banks around the world store blood components for several weeks ensuring its availability for transfusion medicine. Red blood cells (RBCs) are known to undergo compositional changes during storage, which may impact the cells’ function and eventually the recipients’ health. We extracted the RBC’s cytoplasmic membrane (RBCcm) to study the effect of storage on the membranes’ molecular structure and bending rigidity by a combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray diffuse scattering (XDS) and coarse grained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Blood was stored in commercial blood bags for 2 and 5 weeks, respectively and compared to freshly drawn blood. Using mass spectrometry, we measured an increase of fatty acids together with a slight shift towards shorter tail lengths. We observe an increased fraction (6%) of liquid ordered (lo) domains in the RBCcms with storage time, and an increased lipid packing in these domains, leading to an increased membrane thickness and membrane order. The size of both, lo and liquid disordered (ld) lipid domains was found to decrease with increased storage time by up to 25%. XDS experiments reveal a storage dependent increase in the RBCcm’s bending modulus κ by a factor of 2.8, from 1.9 kBT to 5.3 kBT. MD simulations were conducted in the absence of proteins. The results show that the membrane composition has a small contribution to the increased bending rigidity and suggests additional protein-driven mechanisms.

Increasing triacylglycerol formation and lipid storage by unsaturated lipids protects renal proximal tubules in diabetes

In diabetic patients, dyslipidemia frequently contributes to organ damage such as diabetic kidney disease (DKD). DKD is associated with excessive renal deposition of triacylglycerol (TAG) in lipid droplets (LD). Yet, it is unclear whether LDs play a protective or damaging role and how this might be influenced by dietary patterns. By using a diabetes mouse model, we find here that high fat diet enriched in the unsaturated oleic acid (OA) caused more lipid storage in LDs in renal proximal tubular cells (PTC) but less tubular damage than a corresponding butter diet with the saturated palmitic acid (PA). Mechanistically, we identify endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress as the main cause of PA-induced PTC injury. ER stress is caused by elevated cellular levels of saturated TAG precursors and to higher membrane order in the ER. The resulting cell death is preceded by a transcriptional rewiring of phospholipid metabolism. Simultaneous addition of OA rescues the cytotoxic effects by normalizing membrane order and by increasing the total TAG amount. The latter also stimulates the formation of LDs that in turn can release unsaturated lipids upon demand by lipolysis. Our study thus clarifies mechanisms underlying PA-induced cell stress in PTCs and emphasizes the importance of olive oil for the prevention of DKD.

Cholesterol-dependent plasma membrane order (Lo) is critical for antigen-specific clonal expansion of CD4+ T cells

Early “T cell activation” events are initiated within the lipid microenvironment of the plasma membrane. Role of lipid membrane order (Lo) in spatiotemporal signaling through the antigen receptor in T cells is posited but remains unclear. We have examined the role of membrane order (Lo)/disorder (Ld) in antigen specific CD4+ T cell activation and clonal expansion by first creating membrane disorder, and then reconstituting membrane order by inserting cholesterol into the disordered plasma membrane. Significant revival of antigen specific CD4+ T cell proliferative response was observed after reconstituting the disrupted membrane order with cholesterol. These reconstitution experiments illustrate Koch’s postulate by demonstrating that cholesterol-dependent membrane order (Lo) is critical for responses generated by CD4+ T cells and point to the importance of membrane order and lipid microenvironment in signaling through T cell membrane antigen receptors.

Broad lipid phase transitions in mammalian cell membranes measured by Laurdan fluorescence spectroscopy

Employing fluorescence spectroscopy and the membrane-embedded dye Laurdan we experimentally show broad order-disorder-transitions in membranes of various cell lines and red blood cell ghosts. A custom-made setup allows for the determination of fluorescence spectra and the determination of the generalized polarization (GP) as a measure for membrane order in the temperature range of -40°C to +90°C of µl-volumes of cell suspension. While artificial lipid membranes like phosphatidylcholine show sharp transitions as known from calorimetry measurements, living cells in a physiological temperature range do only show linear changes in generalized polarization. However, extending the temperature range shows the existence of broad transitions and their sensitivity to cholesterol content, pH and anaesthetic. Moreover, adaptation to culture conditions like decreased temperature and morphological changes like detachment of adherent cells or dendrite growth are accompanied by changes in membrane order as well. The observed GP changes are equivalent to temperature changes dT in the range of -12K < dT <+6K