‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

 Red cell membrane

structure
 Red cell membrane
 The red cell membrane consists of a lipid bilayer supported by structural proteins
and help to keep the membrane fluid consistent, membrane proteins are important
for transporting substance across the cell membrane
1/ 50 percent of the membrane is protein
 2/ 40 % is lipid
 3/ 10% is carbohydrate
 Composition of the red cell membrane

Lipids
Lipid components of the red cell membrane are:
 60% Phospholipids
 30% cholesterol.
 10% sphingolipids

The functional roles of lipids are in fact many ; they serve as regulatory agents in the
cell growth and adhesion. IN ADDITION THE CHOLESTEROL REGULATES
FLIDITY OF THE CELL MEMBRANE IN ANIMAL CELL
 The Phospholipids :
 1/Fatty acid tails
 Hydrophobic[don’t combine with water 2/
phosphate group head
 Hydrophilic [combine with water]
 The lipid bilayer forms the wall of the red cell and separates the contents from the
external environment.

 Alteration in lipid composition can produce target cells or acanthocytes.

 Carbohydrates
 Carbohydrates are mostly found on the external surface of the red cell membrane.

 CAROHYDRATE ARE CHEMICALLY BOUND TO GLYCOLIPIDS AND

GLYCOPROTEINS .AND SOME CARBOHYDRATES CAN BE ASSOCIATED
TO INTRACELLULAR MEMBRANES.
 Proteins
Proteins are either:
 peripheral

 integral.
Integral proteins
 penetrating the lipid bilayer (removed if lipid bilayer is disturbed)

 Band 3 (acts as anion transport

channel).
 Glycophorins A, B, and C.
 glucose transport protein.
 surface receptors. (the most important
is the transferrin receptors
Peripheral Proteins

The red cell peripheral proteins interact to form a cytoskeleton.

The cytoskeleton acts as a tough supporting framework for the
lipid bilayer
Four peripheral proteins play a key role in the structure of the
red cell cytoskeleton, these are :
Spectrin, which is the most abundant
Ankyrin
Protein 4.1 and
Actin
membrane skeleton :
The lipid bilayer is stabilised by a protein framework on the inside of the cell.
The "skeleton" is made of spectrin, an asymmetric two-chained molecule (α and β)
which is attached to the inside of the cell wall by other proteins including actin and
ankyrin. The ankyrin binds to an integral protein (band 3) and the actin to a peripheral
protein (band 4.1)
Spectrin
 is the most abundant, consists of two chains, α and β , wound around each other.
 Spectrin gives the cell membrane its flexibility & strength.
 If denatured, red cell takes spherical shape and loses flexibility.
 PROTEIN IDENTIFICATION
 Proteins in the red cell membrane can be solubilized by a detergent called sodium
dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and then be separated according to their size using
polyacrylamide gel-electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).
Thanks