FIGURE 2.

Deformation of RBC skeleton. (A) Experimental evidence for the deformation of the membrane skeleton when RBC ghost is aspirated into a medium size pipette (R_p ≈ 2 μm) (from Discher et al., 1994; reprinted with permission from AAAS). The skeleton density profiles along the projection of four aspirated RBC ghosts are shown, obtained by measuring fluorescein-phalloidin-labeled actin. Relevant for the present discussion is the decrease of the intensity along the aspirated part of the ghosts (arrows). (B) Skeleton extension ratios along parallels λ_p (dashed) and along meridians λ_m (dots) and the density 1/λ_pλ_m (relative to its mean value; full line) calculated according to the described model (Svetina et al., 2016) for the RBC aspirated into medium size pipette (A) (reprinted with permission from Švelc and Svetina, 2012). The pipette is on the right. The initial shape with, presumably, homogeneous skeleton distribution is a discocyte.