An Ex Vivo Erythrocyte Model for Investigating Oxidative Metabolism

The technology of opening and resealing the erythrocytes can be used successfully to investigate several basic aspects of cellular metabolism, including oxidative metabolism. Human and animal erythrocytes can be loaded with different kinds of molecules (enzymes, metabolites, immunoglobulins, exogenous substances, etc.) to modify cellular metabolism, through procedures easy to perform, reproducible, and highly conservative (1 ,2 ). Use of these procedures, notably those based on hypotonic hemolysis, isotonic resealing, and reannealing leads to intact and fully viable erythrocytes.