Erythrocyte Membrane Properties in Patients with Essential Hypertension

In spite of the extensive research efforts that have been conducted over the last decades, it is still very difficult to point out genetic determinants or environmental conditions responsible for the development of essential hypertension. We searched for differences in the RBC membrane skeleton structure and O₂ membrane permeability between RBCs from patients with both essential arterial hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, from patients having only hypercholesterolemia and from healthy donors. The topography of RBCs and the content of various hemoglobin forms were detected using atomic force microscopy and Mössbauer spectroscopy, respectively. We found that the membrane skeleton of RBCs from healthy donors displayed a well-known honeycomb pattern, whereas in patients with essential hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia, who had never received anti-hypertensive therapy, it displayed a corncob pattern. Hypertensive RBCs had an oval shape and the average lateral to longitudinal diameter ratio for the changed cells (about 70 %) did not exceed 0.80. We observed that after the incubation of RBCs under high nitrogen (low O₂) pressure at room temperature and then their transfer into 85 K, a content of oxyHb (deoxyHbOH) already after 1 h reached a stable level of about 85 ± 3 % (15 ± 3 %) in hypertensives, whereas in healthy individuals it showed a decrease for deoxyHbOH and an increase for oxyHb, which stabilized at a level of about 81 ± 5 % and 19 ± 5 %, respectively, only after 9 h. Quantitative analysis of the Δ(oxyHb) change estimated as the difference between the oxyHb level measured after 9 and 2 h at 85 K under low N₂ pressure (to slow down oxyHb formation) was significantly higher in normotensives than in hypertensive patients with or without hypercholesterolemia, 19.9 versus ?4.2, p < 0.02. Our findings indicate an impaired oxygen release by Hb in RBCs of patients with hypertension under low oxygen pressure which if present in vivo may cause hypoxemia and, in turn, further increase of blood pressure.