A metabolic osmotic model of human erythrocytes

A metabolic osmotic model of red blood cells is presented which takes into account the main reaction steps of glycolysis and the passive and active fluxes of ions across the cell membrane. Cellular energy metabolism and osmotic behaviour are linked by the ATP consumption for the active transport of cations as well as by the osmotic action of the glycolytic intermediate 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG). The model is based on a system of differential equations describing the metabolic reactions and transport processes. Further, two algebraic conditions for the osmotic equilibrium and the electroneutrality of the cell are considered. Using realistic system parameters the model allows the calculation of a great number of dependent variables, among them the cell volume, the concentrations of metabolites and ions and the transmembrane potential. Only stationary states are considered. The parameter dependence of important model variables is characterized by control coefficients. The main results are: (a) The volume of erythrocytes is mainly determined by the permeabilities of the leak fluxes of cations, the content of hemoglobin and the activity of the hexokinase-phosphofructokinase system of glycolysis; (b) Changes of volume affect the glycolytic rate mainly by changing the concentration of ATP which is a regulator of glycolysis; (c) A change in the membrane area may affect the other cell properties only if it is connected with variations of the number of active and leak sites of the membrane.