Desickling of Sickle Cell Erythrocytes by Pulsed RF Fields

摘要

The purpose of this project is to use electrical pulses as a non-invasive method to desickled SS erythrocytes. We developed an electrical technique to convert sickled red blood cells to normal discoidal erythrocytes. Electrical pulses create small pores in erythrocyte membrane and the fluxes of ions and water are the direct cause to observed shape changes of erythrocytes. The pore formation was confirmed by a patch clamp method as well as AA spectrophotometry. Field induced membrane potential which causes the partial breakdown of the membrane and the formation of pores was calculated theoretically.