Anemia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anemia, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, diet, treatment, causes.

Characterization of red cell membrane proteins as a function of red cell density: annexin VII in different forms of hereditary spherocytosis.

Caterino M, Ruoppolo M, Orrù S, Savoia M, Perrotta S, Del Vecchio L, Salvatore F, Stewart GW, Iolascon A

Dipartimento di Biochimica e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Napoli "Federico II", Via Pansini, 5 80131 Napoli, Italy.

Fresh human blood samples were collected from healthy controls and splenectomized and unsplenectomized patients with hereditary spherocytosis due to band 3 or ankyrin and spectrin deficiency. The erythrocytes were separated into age-related fractions using self-forming Percoll density gradients. Membrane proteins were analysed by 2D electrophoresis and identified by mass spectrometry. Annexin VII was present in reticulocytes but was then lost as the cells matured. A different pattern was found in band 3-deficient samples: annexin VII was in fact present in both mature and immature red cell membranes. Cytoskeletal anomalies may then influence the turn-over of annexin VII during erythrocyte maturation.

Published 4 December 2006 in FEBS Lett, 580(28): 6527-32.
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