Long term storage stabilizes human erythrocyte membrane in Nigerian Black males

Abstract

Osmotic fragility (OF) test was conducted in Nigerian human black male erythrocytes stored for Oh, 12h, 24h and 48h. Storage of these human erythrocytes for up to 24h failed to alter significantly their membrane characteristics. A leftward shift in osmotic fragiligrams was noted
suggestive of storage-time (age) dependent erythrocyte stability. Mean corpuscular fragility (MCF) diminished with and was negatively correlated (r = - 0.972052) with storage time. A 48hstorage- time MCF exhibited the greatest variance compared to Oh, 12h and 24h (P< 0.00 1). These results support OF-test data as viable indices of membrane stability of human erythrocytes stored for upto 24h. Beyond this time under-estimation of OF may ensue due to storage-time (ex-vivo ageing) dependent human erythrocyte membrane stabilization.