title: Menopausal status affects the susceptibility of stored RBCs to mechanical stress.
abstract: The mechanical fragility index (MFI) is an in vitro measure of sublethal injury to RBCs. In our previous experiments, we demonstrated that an increase in sublethal injury (increasing MFI) was a component of the RBC storage lesion, and that the MFI was significantly higher amongst the RBC units from male donors compared to pre-menopausal female donors during storage. It was hypothesized that hormonal or menstrual factors contributed to this difference. In this study, we found that RBC units donated by post-menopausal women demonstrated an MFI that was significantly higher than those donated by pre-menopausal women throughout storage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Raval
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seltsam
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Scharberg
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Kameneva
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Yazer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001793:Blood Preservation; D004912:Erythrocytes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009996:Osmotic Fragility; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000097:blood*; D013312:Stress, Physiological