Behaviour of Young and Old Desialylated Rabbit Erythrocytes in vivo

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Abstract
Young and old rabbit erythrocytes, separated by density gradient centrifugation, were desialylated by neuraminidase treatment and reinjected into the animal after 51Cr labeling. Both red cell populations were quickly removed from the circulation and trapped by the liver. Then a large percentage of the young cells reappeared in the peripheral blood and behaved like untreated erythrocytes. Old cells did not return to the blood stream and were probably lysed in the liver. A sialic acid repair can apparently occur on the membrane of young erythrocytes. The loss of this molecule is not by itself sufficient to determine the death of the cell.