The Effect of Ionic Strength on the Formation, Stability and Lysis of Persensitized Erythrocytes (EAC′142)

Abstract

This investigation has shown that at least two of the intermediate reactions in the over-all process of immune hemolysis are strongly influenced by ionic strength and proceed optimally at values in the region of 0.07 to 0.08 rather than at the physiologic ionic strength 0.155. The reactions so influenced are a) the formation of EAC′₁₄₂ from EA, and b) the lysis of EAC′₁₄₂ by C′3. The former reaction has a sharper optimum than the latter. In contrast, two other reactions were found to be quite unaffected by changes in ionic strength over the wide range 0.035 to 0.3. These were a) the initial sensitization reaction in which EA is formed, and b) the decay reaction of EAC′₁₄₂ to EAC′₁₄. The ionic strength independence of the latter suggests that the foward reaction in which EAC′4₁₄ is converted to EAC′₁₄₂ may also be indifferent to ionic strength. Hence the dependence on ionic strength in the formation of EAC′₁₄₂ from EA probably resides in either or both of the previous steps in which EAC′₁ and EAC′₁₄ are successively formed. These observations help to explain the previously reported finding (1) that the optimum ionic strength for the over-all process of immune hemolysis is close to 0.08.