The cardiac effects of adenosine

Deformability is an essential feature of blood cells (RBCs) that enables them to travel through even the smallest capillaries of the human body. Deformability is a function of (i) structural elements of cytoskeletal proteins, (ii) processes controlling intracellular ion and water handling and (iii) membrane surface-to-volume ratio. All these factors may be altered in various forms of hereditary hemolytic anemia, such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, hereditary spherocytosis and hereditary xerocytosis. Although mutations are known as the primary causes of these congenital anemias, little is known about the resulting secondary processes that affect RBC deformability (such as secondary changes in RBC hydration, membrane protein phosphorylation, and RBC vesiculation). These secondary processes could, however, play an important role in the premature removal of the aberrant RBCs by the spleen. Altered RBC deformability could contribute to disease pathophysiology in various disorders of the RBC. Here we review the current knowledge on RBC deformability in different forms of hereditary hemolytic anemia and describe secondary mechanisms involved in RBC deformability.

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Squeezing for Life - Properties of Red Blood Cell Deformability.

Vertebrate red Blood cells : , Vertebrate red Blood cells : , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

Vertebrate red blood cells

Purine-enriched asanguineous cardioplegia retards adenosine triphosphate degradation during ischemia and improves postischemic ventricular function.

Protein degradation in liver is actively controlled by a small group of inhibitory amino acids--leucine, tyrosine (or phenylalanine), glutamine, proline, histidine, tryptophan, and methionine. Other evidence, however, suggests that one or more of the remaining 12 noninhibitory amino acids is also required for suppression of proteolysis at normal concentrations. This question was investigated in livers of fed rats perfused in the single-pass mode. The deletion of alanine at normal (1x), but not at 4x or 10x normal, plasma amino acid concentrations evoked a near-maximal acceleration of protein degradation. No other noninhibitory amino acid was effective. Because alanine alone was not directly inhibitory and its omission was not associated with a decrease in inhibitory amino acid pools, alanine was presumed to act as a coregulator in the expression of inhibitory activity. When tested alone, the inhibitory group was as effective as the complete mixture at 0.5x and 4x levels, but it lost its suppressive ability within a narrow zone of concentration centered slightly above 1x. The addition of 1x (0.48 mM) alanine completely restored the inhibition. Pyruvate and lactate could be effectively substituted, but only at concentrations 10-20 times greater than that of alanine. These, together with earlier findings, indicate the existence of a regulatory complex that recognizes specific amino acids and transmits positive and negative signals to proteolytic sites. The results also suggest that alanine can provide an important regulatory link between energy demands and protein degradation.

Requirement for alanine in the amino acid control of deprivation-induced protein degradation in liver

Cow red cells, under in vitro incubation conditions, exhibit a comparatively low glycolytic rate of 0.56 +/- 0.05 micromol/(ml cells.h), with a ratio of lactate formed to glucose consumed of 1.58. It has been found that this low glycolytic rate can be stimulated 50--60% above the basal level in the presence of a variety of purine and pyrimidine compounds including adenosine, inosine, adenine, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and uracil. In contrast, calf red cells, which have a much higher glycolytic rate, display no discernible response to these agents. In attempts to elucidate the mechanism by which this stimulation takes place, both glucose transport and glycolytic enzyme activities were determined in the presence of these stimulators. Glucose influx in cow red cells, measured using the glucose analog 3-O-methyl-glucose, exhibits both a low Km of 117 microM and a Vmax of 0.38 micromol/(ml cells.min), and is unaltered in the presence of adenosine. On the other hand, hexokinase, which in normal hemolysates of cow red cells has an activity of 0.49 +/- 0.03 micromol/(g Hb.min). was found to be stimulated to 0.73 micromol/(g Hb.min) in the presence of adenine. Both pyruvate kinase and phosphofructokinase were unaffected by this compound. These data suggest that certain purines and pyrimidine compounds may exert their stimulatory effect on hexokinase activity, resulting in an augmentation of cow red cell glycolysis.

H. D. Kim

Papers

Cow red blood cells. I. Effect of purines, pyrimidines, and nucleosides in bovine red cell glycolysis.