These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Osmotic forces in artificially induced cell fusion.
    Author: Ahkong QF, Lucy JA.
    Journal: Biochim Biophys Acta; 1986 Jun 13; 858(1):206-16. PubMed ID: 3707962.
    Abstract:
    The importance of cell swelling in the fusion of erythrocytes by three different chemical treatments has been investigated with cells that were cytoplasmically labelled with 6-carboxyfluorescein. Hen erythrocytes, which had been pre-incubated with ionophore A23187 and 5 mM Ca2+ to cause a proteolytic breakdown of the membrane skeleton, were induced to fuse by applying an osmotic shock. Human erythrocytes that had been incubated in an isotonic salt/buffer solution, which was progressively diluted and which contained 0.5 mM La3+ to minimise cell lysis, were also fused. In addition, the fusion of human erythrocytes by 40% poly(ethylene glycol) began only when the poly(ethylene glycol) was diluted, and it mostly occurred when the diluted polymer solution was subsequently replaced by isotonic buffer. In related experiments, the effect of an osmotic gradient on electrically induced cell fusion has been studied. Human erythrocytes in 150 mM erythritol fused more readily than less swollen cells in 200-400 mM erythritol when subjected to a 20 microseconds pulse of 3.5 kV X cm-1, indicating that the extent of cell fusion induced by the breakdown pulse is governed by the combined electrical-compressive and osmotic forces. Since osmotic phenomena are already known to be important in exocytosis, we suggest that these observations on cell fusion indicate that osmotic forces may provide the driving force for many membrane fusion reactions in biological systems.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]