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Updated: Jul 25, 2026
Measuring Deformability and Red Cell Heterogeneity in Blood by Ektacytometry
Published on: January 12, 2018
Methods of measuring volume changes in erythrocytes under hypoosmotic stress: a comparison
Carolina Panis1, Marta M Souza
1Department of Physiological Sciences, Center of Biological Sciences, State University of Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brazil.
Objective:
To compare methods of analyzing changes in red blood cell volume when exposed to osmotic challenge.
Study Design:
The sensitivity of different methods was tested using fish erythrocytes under hypoosmotic stress (80% and 60% saline): hematocrit ratio, Hcto(exp)/ Hcto(ctr); cellular hemoglobin mean concentration; optical density (OD400); water content; surface area estimation; mean corpuscular volume (MCV); and mean cellular hemoglobin (MCH).
Results:
Cells exposed to both solutions demonstrated a volume increase via hematocrit ratio of 16 +/- 2% and 30 +/- 3% (p < 0.001) when exposed to 80% and 60% saline, respectively. Cellular volume estimation by OD400 revealed a change in volume only at 60% saline (26% increase). Surface area estimation suggested a difference in volume at 60% saline. MCV revealed differences in volume at < 60% saline exposure with a 33% increase and indicated a 19% increase at 80% saline. MCH showed an increase of 48% with exposure to 80% saline.
Conclusion:
The results reveal that Hcto(ctr)/Hcto(exp), MCV, OD400 and MCH yield significant volume changes and that Hcto(ctr)/Hcto(exp) is the most sensitive assay.
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