Whole blood from SCD patients was stained for CD45, CD71, DNA, CD233 and CD49d. (A) Scatter plot of DAPI signals versus CD49d signals of CD71-positive RBCs with puckered morphologies. The RBCs in the B and C gates were positive and negative for both DAPI and CD49d, respectively. Representative brightfield and fluorescent images of the RBCs in the B and C gates in (A) are shown in panels (B) and (C), respectively. BF: brightfield, CD233: band 3, CD49d: α–4 integrin, CD71: transferrin receptor, CD45: leukocyte common antigen. Scale bar: 7 μm.