Human sickle erythrocytes: survival in chimpanzees

The survival characteristics of human sickle (SS) erythrocytes (RBCs) transfused to intact chimpanzees were determined. The mean post-transfusion recovery of 51Cr-labelled SS RBCs in four chimpanzees was 30.5% +/- 15.2 SD, and the half-life survival was 4.2 h +/- 0.8 SD. The recovery of control (hemoglobin AA) human red cells in five chimpanzees was complete and their mean intravascular T 1/2 was 22.3 h. Shorter survival of sickle erythrocytes was also shown by transfusing chimpanzees with mixtures of human cells such as 51Cr AA RBCs and 59Fe SS RBCs, or 51Cr SS RBCs and non-labelled fetal (cord blood) erythrocytes. The difference in survival of AA and SS RBCs resembles that in human recipients and was probably caused by sickling of SS cells in the chimpanzee circulation. These primate animals could, therefore, be used as a model for in vivo studies of sickle cell disease.