Effect of RA-233 on erythrocytes from patients with eczema

Erythrocytes (RBCs) from patients with eczema are less flexible than erythrocytes obtained from normal healthy individuals. The addition of RA-233 (a membrane-active agent which is a phosphodiestrase inhibitor) improved the deformability of these rigid RBCs, and this improvement was found to be statistically significant at p less than 0.0001. The increase in deformability that was observed after the addition of the drug is assumed to be related to the increases in intracellular Ca2+,K+ and blood ATP levels which are brought about by the action of this drug.