Irreversible spectrin‐haemoglobin crosslinking in vivo: a marker for red cell senescence

Abstract

S ummary . We have demonstrated that the in vivo presence of spectrin and haemoglobin aggregates occur in the oldest, dehydrated and most dense fraction of normal circulating red cells, following their separation by Percoll/hypaque density gradient. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of irreducible in vivo oxidative damage to the red cell membrane cytoskeleton.