title: Morphological changes induced in erythrocyte membrane by the antiepileptic treatment: An atomic force microscopy study.
abstract: Atomic force microscopy (AFM), a powerful characterization tool widely applied in problems in a large range of disciplines of the natural sciences, including cellular biology, was used to obtain information about the morphological changes induced in the erythrocyte membrane at the patients with epilepsy that undergo a long time treatment that operates upon one or several neuronal ionic channels, comparative with a healthy donor. This technique allowed non-invasive imaging of erythrocyte membrane, revealing details and specific characteristics down to the nanometer level with characterization of surface texture parameters, such as average height, average roughness and coefficient of kurtosis at micrometer/nanometer resolution. For the healthy donor the AFM morphology appears to have all the characteristics of a normal red blood cell membrane. Instead, the closer examination of the erythrocytes membrane surface morphology for the samples collected from the patients diagnosed with epilepsy and treated with specific drugs did not reveal similar structures with those obtained for the healthy donor. The nanostructure of the membrane was drastically damaged, depending on the administrated treatment, and probably in time will affect their functionality. Therefore, the anticomital drugs have influence not only at the neuronal level, but also at the red blood cell level.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Discipline Biophysics and Medical Physics, "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania.
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oprisan
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Materials Physics, "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Iasi, Romania.
authors.forename: Iuliana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stoica
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Materials Physics, "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Iasi, Romania.
authors.forename: Mihaela Iuliana
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Avadanei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000187:drug effects*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D013499:Surface Properties / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D015220:Calcium Channels; D015222:Sodium Channels
keywords: antiepileptic treatment; atomic force microscopy; erythrocyte membrane; morphology; texture analysis