Adiabatic compressibility of red blood cell membrane: influence of skeleton

Measurements of ultrasound velocity and density were used for determination of the adiabatic compressibility of red blood cells (RBC) during detachment of the membrane skeleton. Skeleton detachment was induced by addition of nystatin into a low ionic strength RBC suspension resulting in an increase (10%) of the ultrasound velocity concentration increment, [u], while the specific volume of cells, phi(v) did not change significantly. Changes of the concentration increment had rather long kinetics and were not completed even after 60 min. Both [u] and phiV values were used for calculation of the specific apparent adiabatic compressibility of RBC, phiK/beta0. The value of the specific apparent compressibility decreases following addition of nystatin. This corresponds to an increase in the volume elastic modulus of RBC membranes during detachment of the membrane skeleton. Control experiments with large unilamellar liposomes at conditions similar to that performed with the RBC did not reveal significant changes of [u] after the addition of nystatin. Our results show that the role of the membrane skeleton probably consists in maintaining higher compressibility of the RBC membranes. This may partly provide conditions for conformational changes of RBC membrane proteins.