Affiliations: Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime University, Toon, Ehime, Japan | Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime University, Toon, Ehime, Japan | Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology, Medical Clinic II, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Noriaki Mitsuda, Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime University, Shitsukawa, Toon, Ehime 791-0295, Japan. Tel.: +81 89 960 5245; Fax: +81 89 960 5246; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Erythrocytes are very susceptible to oxidative stress, having a high content of intracellular oxygen and hemoglobin. In the present study, exposure to oxidative stress resulted in a significant impairment of erythrocyte membrane functions, such as deformability and anion exchange. Band 3 protein, also known as anion exchanger-1, plays an important role in these two functions. We show that oxidative stress activated caspase-3 inside the erythrocytes, which resulted in band 3 protein cleavage. Interestingly, inhibition of the caspase-3 with its specific inhibitor not only suppressed the digestion of band 3 protein, but also blunted the functional damage to erythrocytes, such as deformability and anion exchange, without changing the level of peroxidation of membrane lipids. These results provide experimental evidence that activation of caspase-3 plays an important role in the oxidative stress-induced impairment of membrane functions of erythrocytes.
Keywords: Band 3, oxidative stress, erythrocyte deformation, anion exchange
Journal: Biorheology, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 179-190, 2007
