Experimental evaluation of erythrocyte proteins membrane skeleton in
hypertension
H. Filsoofiana,b, S. Akbaria,b, A. Akbaria*
a GreenNanoTech Kft, Király Utca 80, Budapest, 1068, Hungary
b NanoSciTec GmbH, Hermann Weinhauser str. 67, Munich, 81867, Germany
Abstract
Reduced erythrocyte deformability is one of the important causes for stroke and heart
failure in hypertensive patients. Deformability is a biophysical feature of erythrocyte
determined by membrane cortex structure. Proteins of membrane skeleton such as
spectrin, actin, band 4.1, ankryn and transmembrane protein Band 3 play a more important
role than other membrane components in determining erythrocyte deformability.
However, changes in proteins of erythrocyte membrane skeleton in hypertension have not
been investigated so far. Therefore, in this report, calorimetric and spectroscopic
investigations of the proteins of erythrocyte membrane skeleton are investigated in
hypertensive rats and normal animals. Several methods were applied including differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism spectropolarimeter (CD), fourier
transform infrared (FTIR). Our results showed that proteins of erythrocyte membrane
skeleton, especially spectrin and Band 3 protein in hypertensive rats, are more compact
than in normal rats. These changes are likely to have considerable effect on the membrane
phospholipids and will increase their rigidity, which will ultimately reduce erythrocyte
deformability.
Keywords: hypertension, deformability of erythrocyte, protein of membrane skeleton,
CD, DSC
© Article info: Accepted by: 14 November 2021, Published by: 1 December 2021