[Structural changes of the erythrocyte membrane in myelodysplastic syndromes]

Myelodisplasic syndromes (MS) is a group of hematological alterations with well-known clinical, diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic features. The etiology is still, however, unclear. Following the hypothesis of the lesion of the pluripotential cell, we have studied the composition of red cell membrane in 5 patients afflicted with MS (1 with refractory anemia; 3 refractory anemia plus excessive blast count and 1 chronic myelomonocytic leukemia). The red cells of the patients afflicted with MS has morphological alterations at examination in fresh. The most frequently observed being acanthocytosis and macrocytosis. Structurally, they showed an increase in the cholesterol/phospolipids (C/P) quotient, which was responsible for the increase of the cell area and macrocytosis. Meanwhile, the high level of sphingomyelin (SP) and its depletion of phosphatidil-ethanol-amine (PEA), justify the double population of red cells; one of which being acantocytes and the other has and aquired mutation of the genetic code, which confirms the chromosomic alterations widely described. We feel that our findings confirmed the hypothesis of the effects of an oncogen on the genoma of the mother cell, which can be causal of some acute leukemias and other genetically confirmed alterations.