Heterogeneity of human red blood cell membrane: co-existence of heavy and light membranes

The exact chemical composition of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane may vary depending on the methods used to isolate the membrane. We provide evidence here that RBC membrane can be fractionated by differential centrifugation and/or density gradient centrifugation into two distinct types, designated as 'heavy membrane' (HM) and 'light membrane' (LM). The amount of LM is twice that of HM on a per cell basis. HM and LM differ in some biochemical and electrophoretic properties. The total activities of Na+, K+- and Ca2+-ATPases, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and glucose-6-phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase are significantly higher in LM than HM on a per cell basis. While there is no significant difference in the specific activity of other enzymes between the two membranes, the specific activity of Ca2+-ATPase is significantly higher in HM, whereas Na+,K+-ATPase activity is higher in LM. There is a remarkable difference in the distribution of major ghost polypeptides between these two membranes. Component I of spectrin, component III and a protein with mol. wt. of 165 KDa are present in smaller amounts, whereas component II of spectrin and proteins with mol. wt. of 145, 84 and 76 KDa, respectively, are present in higher amounts in HM than LM. Some proteins such as band 4.1, 48 and 46 KDa are present only in LM, whereas some proteins with mol. wt. of 96, 78 and 43 KDa, respectively are present only in HM. It has been confirmed that these two membranes are not representatives of either (a) right side-out vs. inside out vesicles, or (b) open vs. sealed membranes. Thus HM and LM are two distinct membrane fractions. It is suggested that some part of the membrane is denser than other parts, and during hemolysis of RBCs, the rbc membrane is spliced resulting in two populations, dense and light.