The Toxic Influence of Excess Free Iron on Red Blood Cells in the Biophysical Experiment: An In Vitro Study

Figure 6

Increasing the pRBC membrane stiffness and a kinetic model. (a) Typical force curves for the control (SFe²⁺ 0–24) and experimental samples (SFe²⁺ 1700–24). (b) Histograms of the relative frequency density for Young’s moduli of native pRBC membranes, n = 100 points for each histogram. For each histogram, the corresponding AFM images of pRBCs are shown. The bottom scale is the same as the top one; from 0 to 0.1 with step 0.02. The one-way ANOVA test followed by the Tukey post hoc test was used: , , and compared to SFe²⁺ 0–1. (c) Distribution functions for SFe²⁺ 0 and SFe²⁺ 1700 after 1 and 24 hours. The 0.95 level is shown as a black dashed line. (d) Kinetic model of changes in content. 1: graph during the interaction of with peroxide at constant concentration of ; 2: model equations; 3: graph over time (quasi-steady state condition); 4: increase in the in the range of incubation time t_inc = 0–120 min (symbols indicate experimental data and lines correspond the fitting functions according to calculated parameters); fitting curves were calculated according model, equation (10); 5: the dependence of steady state level of content on initial concentration , equation (11); 6: graph of the decrease.