Evaluation of erythrocyte shape and status by laser interference microscopy

Abstract

The area, thickness, and volume of erythrocytes of different types (discocytes, stomatocytes, and echinocytes) from normal subjects and coronary patients were studied by laser interference microscopy. Increase of pH value leading to the stomatocyte-discocyte-echinocyte transformations resulted in a slight decrease of cell volume. In coronary patients, erythrocyte had larger area and volume and exhibited increased aggregation capacity compared to erythrocytes from controls. The results recommend laser interference microscopy as an adequate method for erythrocyte evaluation in laboratory diagnostic measurements.

Study of correlation between state and composition of lipid phase and change in erythrocytes structure under induction of oxidative processes

“…By phase images, we can judge about refractive index (RI) distribution in the cell, and by the phase height change about the RI dynamics, and hence about intracellular processes [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

“…The phase height of erythrocytes with an equal refractive index throughout the cell volume is proportional to the cell geometric height (thickness) [24,25]. Knowing the erythrocyte refractive index and phase height calculated from the cell phase image using Image J 1.48 program, we calculated the erythrocyte physical height, which was 2.7 ± 0.13 μm for a normal erythrocyte [22,26].…”

“…To obtain reliable results, at least 100 cells from each sample were taken for calculations. The phase height of erythrocytes with an equal refractive index throughout the cell volume is proportional to the cell geometric height (thickness) [24,25]. From the erythrocytes phase height and refractive index values, the erythrocytes physical height was additionally calculated [22,26].…”

Role of Membrane Lipids in the Regulation of Erythrocytic Oxygen-Transport Function in Cardiovascular Diseases

“…All these factors can also influence the transport of ions and change the oxygen-binding properties of the erythrocyte hemoglobin through the change in hematoporphyrin conformation [6, 25, 48–50]. …”

Study of the Structure, Oxygen-Transporting Functions, and Ionic Composition of Erythrocytes at Vascular Diseases

“…Further, by normalisation of the signal wavelength, we determine the optical path difference of the two waves or phase height (thickness) of the object at a given point and create the phase portrait of a cell that represents the distribution of the phase shift in various areas of the object. The obtained values of phase shift are used to construct a volume (three-dimensional) image of a cell [ 6 ].…”