L. Zolla et al., EFFECT OF MERCURIC IONS ON HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES .1. RATE OF HEMOLYSIS INDUCED BY OSMOTIC SHOCK AS A FUNCTION OF INCUBATION-TIME, Toxicology in vitro, 8(3), 1994, pp. 483
Incubation of human erythrocytes with mercuric ions for 5 min causes a
transient increase in mechanical resistance as measured by osmotic sh
ock. After a longer incubation time (necessary for the metal to cross
the cell membrane), cells recover their normal fragility; however, aft
er 10-20 min of exposure to mercuric ions haemolysis occurs in the inc
ubation vessel. In contrast, p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate (a compou
nd known to bind mainly to band 3 of the cell membrane without passing
into the cell) increases the osmotic resistance of erythrocytes, as o
bserved transiently for mercuric ions, but does not induce haemolysis
even at incubation times of 20-30 min. Therefore it seems that the int
eraction per se of mercuric ions with the membrane does not represent
the main damaging event and therefore the toxicological effect of merc
uric ions must be mostly related to subsequent processes, such as the
interaction of the metal with intracytoplasmic components and/or disru
ption of the cytoskeleton.