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Journal of Experimental Biology 28,567-575 (1951)
Published by Company of Biologists 1951

Fragmentation of Red Cell Ghosts in Relation to the Problem of Red Cell Structure

ERIC PONDER ¹

¹ Nassau Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.

Human red cell ghosts are prepared by methods which yield ghosts with a volume between one-half and one-fifth that of the intact red cell. These ghosts, when heated to temperatures between 49 and 54°C, break into a number of fragments whose total volume is approximately the same as that of the ghost before it fragmented. This indicates that the ghosts prepared by these methods are solid bodies rather than hollow shells.

The ghosts contain from one-third to one-fifteenth of the Hb of the intact red cell, probably as an integral part of their structure. This structure is discussed in relation to a proposed structure for the red cell itself. The evidence points to the red cell being composed of lipid, Hb and proteins other than Hb, to these being oriented to a decreasing, but never negligible, extent from without inwards, and to the properties of the ghost (volume, Hb content, chemical composition, etc.) being largely dependent on the way in which it is prepared.