Blood, 1 August 2001, Vol. 98, No. 3, pp. 883-884
BRIEF REPORT
Direct intracellular measurement of deoxygenated hemoglobin
S solubility
Mary E. Fabry,
Laurephile Desrosiers, and
Sandra M. Suzuka
From the Department of Medicine, Division of
Hematology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.
The solubility of deoxygenated hemoglobin S (HbS), which is the
concentration of fully deoxygenated HbS in equilibrium with polymer
(CSAT), is a factor that determines in vivo polymer
formation. However, measurement of CSAT is usually
performed under conditions that are far from physiological. In solution
studies of HbS by Benesch et al, it was demonstrated that p50,
the point at which hemoglobin is half-saturated with oxygen, is
proportional to the amount of polymer formed and that it may be used to
measure CSAT. This method has been extended to
measure CSAT in intact red cells by varying
extracellular osmolarity, which, in turn, varies intracellular hemoglobin concentration. This method measures intracellular
CSAT under physiological conditions with intact red cell
contents and can be applied to human and transgenic mouse red cells.
The principle is demonstrated by measuring p50 as a function of
extracellular osmolarity for AA, SS, and AS red cells.
