Figure 2.

Time sequence of the appearance of red blood cell (RBC)-derived microparticles on the surface of human packed RBC isolated from (A) men and (B) women. Examples of atomic force microscopy (AFM) images with the use of WITec confocal CRM alpha 300 in non-contact mode (AC) (WITec, Ulm, Germany) and dry Zeiss objective (ECEPIPLAN 20x/0.4). AFM images of 256x256 lines and 512x512 lines were collected from areas of 25x25 mm2, 8x8 mm2 and 1.5x1.5 mm2, which were performed at room temperature on dried smears of (A) female RBC and (B) male RBC fixed with 1% glutaraldehyde (10 minutes). (C) Sex-specific, time-dependent changes of the RBC-derived microparticle (RMP) sizes observed on the surface of human packed RBC. Data distribution is presented as box plots (median, Q1, Q3, interquartile range, min-max whiskers). Q1, Q3 indicate 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively. *Weeks 7 and 8 are additional measurements exceeding expiration date. Statistical significance of the obtained results (n>35) was tested with Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA non-parametric test followed by Tukey’s post hoc. NS: not significant; *P<0.05; **P<0.01, ***P<0.001, ****P<0.0001).