[Ultrastructural changes in the erythrocytes irradiated with ultraviolet light]

The ultrastructure of erythrocytes of donor blood and blood of patients suffering from kidney insufficiency was studied with the help of scanning and transmission electron microscopes before and after it was treated with ultraviolet light. It was concluded that after being treated with ultraviolet light, the ultrastructure of donor blood erythrocytes undergoes significant positive changes which are being characterized by normalization of the form of cells, decrease of associative ties between them, the cytoplasm content becomes more homogenous. There was a noticeable increase of a number of discocytes and a decreased number of associative ties between the cells after the patients' own blood was treated with ultraviolet light. The violation of the wholesomeness of erythrocytes membrane was not discovered. The indications are that the observed therapeutical effect after treating blood with ultraviolet light, is explained, to a certain extent, by the ultrastructural modification of erythrocytes membrane.