title: Force balance and membrane shedding at the red-blood-cell surface.
abstract: During the aging of the red-blood cell, or under conditions of extreme echinocytosis, membrane is shed from the cell plasma membrane in the form of nanovesicles. We propose that this process is the result of the self-adaptation of the membrane surface area to the elastic stress imposed by the spectrin cytoskeleton, via the local buckling of membrane under increasing cytoskeleton stiffness. This model introduces the concept of force balance as a regulatory process at the cell membrane and quantitatively reproduces the rate of area loss in aging red-blood cells.
authors.affiliation: Physico-Chimie Théorique (CNRS UMR 7083), ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris, France. pierre.sens@espci.fr
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sens
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gov
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000737:chemistry; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002966:Clathrin / Q000737:chemistry; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D004905:Erythrocyte Aging; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002966:Clathrin; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D002118:Calcium