Figure 3.
Membrane-bound hemichromes, autologous IgG, and complement C3c fragment; aggregated band 3 and phagocytosis in nonparasitized normal and mutant RBCs, and in ring-parasitized normal and mutant RBCs. Parameters were measured in nonparasitized normal controls (NP-N), nonparasitized mutant controls (NP-M), normal rings (RP-N), and mutant rings (RP-M) in HbAS, beta-thal trait, alpha-thal trait, and HbH RBCs. Hemichromes are expressed in nmol/mL membranes; aggregated band 3, as percentage aggregated band 3 over total band 3; membrane-bound autologous IgG and C3c, as milliabsorbance units/min/107 RBCs; and phagocytosis, as number of phagocytosed RBCs per monocyte. Note that the ordinate values may vary considerably in the different conditions. Data are mean values ± SD (vertical bars). Numbers of separate experiments each performed with a different donor were as follows: HbAS, 11; beta-thal trait, 12; alpha-thal trait, 4; and HbH, 5. Significance of differences between normal rings (RP-N) and mutant (RP-M) rings was assessed by t test for paired samples. *P < .001; **P < .01; and no asterisk, P > .05.