Transport of monovalent cations and calcium in erythrocytes from spontaneously hypertensive rats: investigations with fractions enriched with young and old cells

The erythrocytes from two spontaneously hypertensive rat strains (SHR and MHS) differ from those of control strains such as WKY and MNS in showing lower values of the mean volume and higher Na, K-cotransport rates. After 4-hour incubation in the presence of orthovanadate 45Ca levels in the erythrocytes from SHR was twice as high as in those from WKY. Under the same conditions, hemoglobin crystallization occured, this process in SHR erythrocytes took place more intensively. No difference was found in these parameters between MNS and MHS. The fractions enriched with young and old cells remained to display variations in the mean volume of cells. Na, K-cotransport rates, 45Ca levels and hemoglobin crystallization, which were recorded between SHR and WKY. The WKY-SHP hybrids of second generation indicated that only Na,K-cotransport rates of the parameters examined positively correlated with blood pressures. From the findings it was concluded that the differences in the volume of erythrocytes and their permeability for cations were not due to the changed time course of cell aging in the blood bed, but to the specific characteristics of cytoskeleton protein arrangement, which were primarily typical of a rat reticulocytic membrane