Measurement of red cell sickling: a method for studying the efficacy of antisickling drugs under physiological conditions
- 1 August 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Canadian Science Publishing in Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
- Vol. 61 (8) , 941-945
- https://doi.org/10.1139/y83-140
Abstract
A method was developed to study sickling in vitro under physiological conditions using a small amount of blood (0.1 mL). The diluted blood suspension (2.1 mL) was placed in a flask and flushed with a gas mixture containing 5% CO2. In deoxygenation experiments, samples were withdrawn anaerobically into a microslide (optical path 0.1 mm) and red cell morphology was studied directly under a light microscope after both ends of the microslide were sealed. The blood suspension with a hematocrit value of 1% can be deoxygenated in less than 10 min, but it takes 30 min for the sickling of cells to reach a plateau. The degree of sickling increases with increasing osmolality of the medium, or with a decrease of the pH. With a citrate–phosphate–dextrose–adenine solution, sickle blood may be stored for this type of study for about 10 days at 4 °C. The blood may be stored for about 5 days with a noncitrate preservative. This method was found useful in examining the antisickling activity of various drugs.Keywords
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