Erythrocyte senescence and membrane transporters in young and old rats

Abstract

Alterations at the level of plasma membrane are reported to play an important role in cellular senescence. The present study was undertaken to correlate cellular senescence, membrane transport processes and organismal aging. To achieve this objective activities of membrane linked Na⁺/K ⁺ ATPase (NKA), Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger (NHE) and correlation with membrane hydrxyperoxide level, sialic acid content and membrane protein oxidation was studied in density-gradient fractionated young and old erythrocytes from 4 and 24 month old Wistar rats. The results reveal that cellular aging within the tissue is associated with significant decrease in activities of NKA and NHE of senescent erythrocytes in comparison to younger cell population of same age group. The result shows that impaired ion homeostasis due to altered membrane transporters including functional and compositional changes may be one of the reasons responsible behind rat erythrocyte aging.

Keywords:

• Erythrocyte
• ion homeostasis
• membrane transporters
• senescence

Declaration of interest

This work was funded by DST SERB Grant SR/SO/HS-147/2010 to S I Rizvi. Department of Biochemistry, University of Allahabad is supported by FIST Grant of DST, India