Fig. 2.

Bilayer couple experiments with intact erythrocytes treated with a total of 20 μM of one Aβ oligomer of the size indicated at the left margins of A and B as a function of time after mixing (numbers in min above each row of figures in A and B). Pictures were taken with Nomarski optics in light microscopy. (C) Enlargements of a succession of the major cell forms observed with time (1, crenated; 2, flattened; 3, cup-shaped; and 4, near-spherical). The photographs indicate that Aβ 1-40 and 1-42 (B) show a rapid succession of shapes of the intact erythrocyte (details in text), more rapidly for Aβ 1-42 than for Aβ 1-40. [Control cells (A Upper) without added Aβ exhibit no significant shape changes over the same time interval.] By 25 min, all of the erythrocytes with added Aβ 1-40 or Aβ 1-42 are lysed, leaving membrane ghosts behind. The effects of Aβ 1-38 on erythrocyte shape, by contrast to Aβ 1-40 and Aβ 1-42, are not distinguishable from the unchanged controls (A).