Membranes in human erythrocytes are the best model to understand the structure and functions of biological membranes. Recently, huge amounts of new information have been accumulated, especially about pathological conditions, and mutations pathognomonic for these disease states have been precisely identified, in addition to the clarification of characteristics of their phenotypes.

There is now much evidence regarding the correlation between the genotypes and phenotypes in normal and disease states. This book fulfills the need to review these results and for a comprehensive and up-to-date source of knowledge in the field.

Contents

1. Introduction: History of Red Cell Membrane Research.
2. Composition of Normal Red Cell Membranes.
3. Stereotactic Structure of Red Cell Membranes.
4. Skeletal Proteins.
5. Integral Proteins.
6. Anchoring Proteins.
7. Membrane Morphogenesis in Erythroid Cells.
8. States of Methylation in the Promoter of the Genes of β-Spectrin, Band 3, and Protein 4.2.
9. Disease States of Red Cell Membranes: Their Genotypes and Phenotypes.
10. Hereditary Spherocytosis.
11. Hereditary Elliptocytosis (HE).
12. Hereditary Stomatocytosis.
13. Acanthocytosis and Its Related Disorders.
14. Abnormalities of Skeletal Proteins.
15. Abnormalities of Integral Proteins and Blood Group Antigens.
16. Abnormalities of Anchoring Proteins.
17. Abnormalities of Membrane Lipids.
18. Closing Remarks

Index

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