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Leaks Induced by Electrical Breakdown in the Erythrocyte Membrane

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Electroporation and Electrofusion in Cell Biology

Abstract

Among animal cells, the erythrocyte has played a very important role in the study of the electrical breakdown* of biological membranes. Much of the original data on this process stem from erythrocytes. This is due to the ready availability and the easy handling of this model system as well as the easy means to detect the formation of membrane leaks by virtue of their final consequence, the release of hemoglobin due to colloid-osmotic lysis. Moreover, the erythrocyte is the simplest system that can be envisaged for studying electrical breakdown of animal cell membranes, since only one membrane surrounding a macroscopically homogeneous cytoplasmic space is involved. Finally, there is probably no other eukaryotic cell for which so many details concerning the membrane constituents, their three-dimensional organization, their biological function, and their overall dynamics and transport properties are already known.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen, D-5100, Aachen, Federal Republic of Germany

    Bernhard Deuticke & Karl Schwister

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  1. Bernhard Deuticke
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  2. Karl Schwister
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, FRG

    Eberhard Neumann

  2. American Red Cross, Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Arthur E. Sowers

  3. Science Applications International Corporation, McLean, Virginia, USA

    Carol A. Jordan

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Deuticke, B., Schwister, K. (1989). Leaks Induced by Electrical Breakdown in the Erythrocyte Membrane. In: Neumann, E., Sowers, A.E., Jordan, C.A. (eds) Electroporation and Electrofusion in Cell Biology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2528-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2528-2_8

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