Stiffening of Red Blood Cells Induced by Cytoskeleton Disorders: A Joint Theory-Experiment Study.

ABSTRACT: The functions and elasticities of the cell are largely related to the structures of the cytoskeletons underlying the lipid bilayer. Among various cell types, the red blood cell (RBC) possesses a relatively simple cytoskeletal structure. Underneath the membrane, the RBC cytoskeleton takes the form of a two-dimensional triangular network, consisting of nodes of actins (and other proteins) and edges of spectrins. Recent experiments focusing on the malaria-infected RBCs (iRBCs) show that there is a correlation between the elongation of spectrins in the cytoskeletal network and the stiffening of the iRBCs. Here we rationalize the correlation between these two observations by combining the wormlike chain model for single spectrins and the effective medium theory for the network elasticity. We sp

SUBMITTER: Lai L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4675886 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature