What is pitting of red blood cells?

Background: In Plasmodium falciparum-infected patients treated with artemisinins, parasitemia declines through so-called pitting, an innate splenic process that transforms infected red blood cells (iRBCs) into once-infected RBCs (O-iRBCs).

Why do red blood cells have a special shape?

The cells themselves are thin, so there is only a short distance for the oxygen to diffuse to reach the centre of the cell. The biconcave shape provides a large surface area compared to the volume of the red blood cell, allowing diffusion to happen efficiently.

What is the difference between culling and pitting?

First, open circulation in the red pulp is engaged in highly sensitive clearance of foreign materials in blood by numerous macrophages resided in splenic cord (culling function). It is also engaged in pitting function by narrow slits of the sinus. It probably corresponds to the fast blood flow in the spleen.

How does intravascular hemolysis occur?

Intravascular hemolysis is the state when the red blood cell ruptures as a result of the complex of complement autoantibodies attached (fixed) on the surfaces of RBCs attack and rupture RBCs’ membranes, or a parasite such as Babesia exits the cell that ruptures the RBC’s membrane as it goes.

What’s the shape of red blood cells?

The shape of the human red blood cell is known to be a biconcave disk. It is evident from a variety of theoretical work that known physical properties of the membrane, such as its bending energy and elasticity, can explain the red-blood-cell biconcave shape as well as other shapes that red blood cells assume.

How does the red blood cell structure relate to its function?

Its biconcave shape maximises the surface area to increase efficiency of oxygen absorption. Its shape also allows it to ”squeeze” through narrow vessels and can enter even the thinnest capillaries around the body. Red blood cells do not have a nucleus, which again increase the oxygen capacity.

What does the spleen remove?

The spleen is an organ that sits under your rib cage on the upper left side of your abdomen. It helps fight infection and filters unneeded material, such as old or damaged blood cells, from your blood. The most common reason for splenectomy is to treat a ruptured spleen, which is often caused by an abdominal injury.

What is hemolysis of red blood cells?

Hemolytic anemia is a disorder in which red blood cells are destroyed faster than they can be made. The destruction of red blood cells is called hemolysis. Red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of your body. If you have a lower than normal amount of red blood cells, you have anemia.

What does haemolysis mean?

hemolysis, also spelled haemolysis, also called hematolysis, breakdown or destruction of red blood cells so that the contained oxygen-carrying pigment hemoglobin is freed into the surrounding medium.