Fig. 2.

Echinocyte formation is increased in HbAS RBCs compared to HbAA RBCs during storage. RBC images were taken with a JEOL JSM- 6335F scanning electron microscope. (a) Upper panel shows representative fields from fresh and stored human HbAA and HbAS RBCs at the beginning and the end of 39–42 day storage. (b) Five fields per sample were counted and analyzed from one healthy and one SCT representative donors at the beginning and end of storage. Human and mouse RBC SEM analysis was performed twice. (c) Lower panel shows representative fields from fresh and 11-day stored murine RBCs obtained from WT C57BL/6 and Berkeley hemizygous mice (One pooled sample each where n = 11 mice donor RBCs/pooled sample). (d) Six fields were counted and analyzed for echinocyte formation from each pooled sample. The results are presented as mean ± SEM, where echinocyte formation represents % echinocyte per total number of cells in fields counted. **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001 analyzed by 2Way ANOVA, GraphPad Prism 6.0.