Influence of age on the stability of human erythrocyte membranes.
This work evaluated the dependence of erythrocyte membrane stability on age, temperature (26, 32, 37, 42 and 47 degrees C), nutritional status, red cell count, red cell distribution width (RDW) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) in human females (n = 67, 20-94 years). Erythrocyte membrane resistance to hypotonic lysis was expressed as the NaCl concentration (H(50)) capable of promoting 50% haemolysis. A nutritional evaluation was performed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) instrument, which showed that 76.1% of the study group were well nourished and 23.9% were at risk of malnutrition. H(50) demonstrated a negative correlation with age at all temperatures. H(50) showed no correlation with either MNA scores or with any haematological indices. The power and significance of the correlations improved when we censored from the analyses those individuals at risk of malnutrition. The thermal dependencies lines for H(50) demonstrated higher values for females 20-39 years of age compared with those more than 60 years of age. These results suggest that erythrocyte resistance to hypotonicity (erythrocyte membrane stability), increased with age of study volunteers. This increased stability was more pronounced among well-nourished individuals.
Instituto de Genética e Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, 38400-902 Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. nspenha@ufu.br
Nilson
N
Penha-Silva
Cynthia Barbosa
CB
Firmino
Francislene Glória
FG
de Freitas Reis
Juliana Carla
JC
da Costa Huss
Tatiana Maria Theodoro
TM
de Souza
Mariana Vaini
MV
de Freitas
Rita de Cássia Mascarenhas
RC
Netto
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D007038:Hypotonic Solutions; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009996:Osmotic Fragility / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013696:Temperature
D007038:Hypotonic Solutions