Lateral mobility of human erythrocyte integral membrane proteins

Abstract

Fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled integral membrane proteins are mobile in the membranes of human erythrocytes that have been fused (and haemolysed) by Sendai virus or polyethylene glycol. Minimum diffusion coefficients are of the order of 10⁻¹¹ cm² s⁻¹ at 37 °C. This mobility is reduced several-fold at room temperature, not detected at 0 °C, and is significantly greater in fresh than in aged blood. Mobility was assessed by observing the spread of fluorescence on labelled cells which had been fused with unlabelled cells; neither intramembrane particle aggregation nor spectrin release occurred during this process.