GENERATION OF NORMAL HUMAN RED-CELL VOLUME, HEMOGLOBIN CONTENT, AND MEMBRANE AREA DISTRIBUTIONS BY BIRTH OR REGULATION

Using flow cytometry and osmotic lysis measurements, we document here the means and coefficients of variation of the following red cell (RBC ) properties: hemoglobin (Hb) content, volume, Hb concentration, and r elative lytic tonicity distributions in populations of normal human RB Cs, before and after density fractionation. The distributions showed a pattern characterized by much larger coefficients of variation of the Hb content and volume distributions than of the Hb concentration and relative lytic tonicity distributions. From analysis of the factors th at determine those RBC properties, the patterns were interpreted as re flecting previously unrecognized statistical proportionalities between cell osmolyte content, Hb content, and membrane area. The possible or igin of these statistical links was analyzed by considering alternativ e models with and without the participation of regulatory processes du ring cell maturation. A model was shown to be feasible in which mature RBC variability with proportional volume, area, and Hb content arises solely from cell size variability at the last erythroid cell division . (C) 1995 by The American Society of Hematology.