Agents facilitating the electric field-induced fusion of intact rabbit erythrocytes

In the recent years, the role of specific membrane active agents in the ele ctrofusion process has started to draw attention, and it has been found tha t the presence of various substances in the cell medium can affect the fusi on process either in a positive or negative way. In this work, the effect o f several proteins, bivalent cations and antibiotics was tested with respec t to their ability to protect intact erythrocytes from hemolysis and facili tate the fusion process. The effect of different sugars was also studied. A mong the different proteins, pronase acid proteinase were found to be the m ost effective. With respect to bivalent cations, Ca2+ and Mn2+ were more ef fective while Mg2+ was less important. From the antibiotics, penicillin cau sed a negative effect while streptomycin acted positively. Finally, glucose medium was found to be the most effective compared to all sugars tested. T he results indicated that there are strong differentiations of the induced effects caused by each substance, and some possible mechanisms of action of these agents on the erythrocyte membrane were discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A, All rights reserved.