OSMOTIC PROPERTIES OF THE ERYTHROCYTE

VI. THE INFLUENCE OF THE ESCAPE OF SALTS ON HEMOLYSIS BY HYPOTONIC SOLUTIONS

¹ From the Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Biology, Princeton University, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

1. The degree of hemolysis of ox erythrocytes produced by a given hypotonic NaCl solution is not decreased by a previous exposure of from a few seconds to several hours to a similar but slightly less hypotonic non-hemolytic solution. Within this period the hemolysis method gives no evidence of any escape of osmotically active substances from the cells. After 3 or 4 hours in the case of ox erythrocytes, and from a few minutes to an hour in the case of those of the pig, cat, rabbit and man, there may be a gradual increase in osmotic resistance suggestive of a slow escape of salts.

2. Solutions of sucrose, either hypotonic or isotonic, cause a striking increase in the osmotic resistance of erythrocytes; this occurs in two stages: a rapid one and a much slower one which follows the first after a considerable interval. While the slower change is probably associated with an escape of salts, the more rapid and more striking one, which is readily reversible, is interpreted as being due to an exchange of anions from the cell for OH' ions from the solution, the resulting increase in base bound by hemoglobin causing a decreased osmotic pressure within the cell. Calculations show that the expected osmotic effect of such an exchange is of the order of magnitude of that actually observed.

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