Abstract
Animal red blood cell in vivo survival curves, obtained by the radioiron tagging of populations of approximately the same age followed by the administration of non-radioactive iron to suppress radioiron reutilization, have been subjected to mathematical analysis on the basis of the three following assumptions:— (A) Red blood cells disappear from the circulation as the result of senescence: there is an average life span around which the life spans of individual cells are distributed in the usual way. (B) Red blood cells may be removed from the circulation by a process of random destruction which continuously removes a constant fraction of the cells present at any moment irrespective of age or other characteristics. (C) Under the conditions of the experiments described, a fraction of the radioiron, constant for each animal, is reutilized in new red cell formation when released by red cell destruction. This mathematical analysis indicates the following average life spans with the respective standard errors of the mean: dog 107 days ± 1.14; rabbit 67.6 days ± 1.94; cat 68.4 ± 1.50. The mathematical treatment presented has permitted a consideration of the theoretical variation of red cell life spans which was found in these experiments to be relatively small for all three species studied. In the rabbit and cat 2.5 per cent of tagged populations of red cells of the same age would theoretically have disappeared by senescence 17 days before the average life span was reached. The variation of red cell life in the dog was slightly less. Animals of the three species studied, in spite of apparently normal health, exhibited varying degrees of random destruction of both autogenous and transfused fresh normal homologous red cells. As yet, we have no explanation for this random loss of cells occurring in apparently healthy normal animals. The method of mathematical analysis presented is applicable to animal red cell survival studies employing radioiron in which differing rates of random destruction are operating in the removal of red cells.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (898.6 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Ashby W. THE DETERMINATION OF THE LENGTH OF LIFE OF TRANSFUSED BLOOD CORPUSCLES IN MAN. J Exp Med. 1919 Feb 28;29(3):267–281. doi: 10.1084/jem.29.3.267. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- BALE W. F., YUILE C. L. Hemoglobin labeled by radioactive lysine; erythrocyte life cycle. J Exp Med. 1949 Oct;90(4):315–320. doi: 10.1084/jem.90.4.315. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- DeGOWIN E. L., SHEETS R. F., HAMILTON H. E. Studies with inagglutinable erythrocyte counts; a method for measurement of net gain or deficit of red cells in the human subject. J Clin Invest. 1950 Jun;29(6):693–713. doi: 10.1172/JCI102307. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- FINCH C. A., GIBSON J. G. II. Iron metabolism; utilization of intravenous radioactive iron. Blood. 1949 Aug;4(8):905–927. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gibson J. G., Evans W. A. CLINICAL STUDIES OF THE BLOOD VOLUME. I. CLINICAL APPLICATION OF A METHOD EMPLOYING THE AZO DYE "EVANS BLUE" AND THE SPECTROPHOTOMETER. J Clin Invest. 1937 May;16(3):301–316. doi: 10.1172/JCI100859. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gibson J. G., Weiss S., Evans R. D., Peacock W. C., Irvine J. W., Good W. M., Kip A. F. THE MEASUREMENT OF THE CIRCULATING RED CELL VOLUME BY MEANS OF TWO RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES OF IRON. J Clin Invest. 1946 Jul;25(4):616–626. doi: 10.1172/JCI101744. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hahn P. F., Bale W. F., Ross J. F., Hettig R. A., Whipple G. H. RADIO-IRON IN PLASMA DOES NOT EXCHANGE WITH HEMOGLOBIN IRON IN RED CELLS. Science. 1940 Aug 9;92(2380):131–132. doi: 10.1126/science.92.2380.131. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hahn P. F., Ross J. F., Bale W. F., Whipple G. H. THE UTILIZATION OF IRON AND THE RAPIDITY OF HEMOGLOBIN FORMATION IN ANEMIA DUE TO BLOOD LOSS. J Exp Med. 1940 May 31;71(6):731–736. doi: 10.1084/jem.71.6.731. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- JOPE E. M. The disappearance of sulphemoglobin from the blood of TNT workers in relation to the dynamics of red cell destruction. Br J Ind Med. 1946 Jul;3:136–142. doi: 10.1136/oem.3.3.136. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- LEESON D., REEVE E. B. The plasma in the packed cell column of the haematocrit. J Physiol. 1951 Oct 29;115(2):129–142. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1951.sp004657. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- NEUBERGER A., NIVEN J. S. F. Haemoglobin formation in rabbits. J Physiol. 1951 Feb;112(3-4):292–310. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1951.sp004530. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Peacock W. C., Evans R. D., Irvine J. W., Good W. M., Kip A. F., Weiss S., Gibson J. G. THE USE OF TWO RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES OF IRON IN TRACER STUDIES OF ERYTHROCYTES. J Clin Invest. 1946 Jul;25(4):605–615. doi: 10.1172/JCI101743. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- VALENTINE W. N., PEARCE M. L., RILEY R. F., RICHTER E., LAWRENCE J. S. Heme synthesis and erythrocyte life span in the cat. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1951 Jun;77(2):244–245. doi: 10.3181/00379727-77-18737. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- YOUNG L. E., ERVIN D. M., YUILE C. L. Hemolytic reactions produced in dogs by transfusion of incompatible dog blood and plasma; serologic and hematologic aspects. Blood. 1949 Nov;4(11):1218–1231. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]