'Shape Shifting' Speeds Up Red Blood Cell Metabolism (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

'Shape Shifting' Speeds Up Red Blood Cell Metabolism

Caption

Compression of red blood cells in elastic gelatin gels accelerates their consumption of glucose and enhances the flux of ions through their membranes. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 18 Oct. 2017, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by P.W. Kuchel at University of Sydney in Sydney, NSW, Australia, and colleagues was titled, "Accelerating metabolism and transmembrane cation flux by distorting red blood cells."

Credit

[Credit: Dmitry Shishmarev]

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