Dimethyl adipimidate: a new antisickling agent.

Abstract

A new approach to the prevention of sickling in vitro by use of the bifunctional crosslinking reagent, dimethyl adipimidate, is described. Prior treatment of sickle erythrocytes with dimethyl adipimidate will inhibit sickling in completely deoxygenated erythrocytes. Treated erythrocytes do not demonstrate the potassium loss and viscosity increase that usually accompany sickling. The oxygen affinity of hemoglobin in these cells is increased independently from changes in the concentration of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. The hemoglobin obtained from treated erythrocytes contains a high-molecular-weight component as well as additional positively charged components. The relative degree to which chemical modification and/or crosslinking is an essential part of the antisickling properties of the material is not known.