Optimization and application of electrophoretic mobility analysis of human red blood cells to study their in vitro stability, interaction with polycations and proteolytic enzymes

Electrophoretic light scattering method has been considered to determine both the mean and polydispersity of electrophoretic mobility of normal human red blood cells. The final goal of our study was to optimize an in vitro test allowing us to investigate the interaction of xenobiotics, in particular polyelectrolytes, with blood cells. The feasibility of our method has been evaluated based on the reproducibility of our technique to analyze the native electrophoretic mobility of human RBCs, as well as their evolution in the presence of polycationic compounds, i.e. a natural polyamine, spermine, and a synthetic polycation, a polyethylenimine (PEI). Additionally, the follow-up of the human RBCs electrophoretic mobility has been controlled after their incubation with neuraminidase. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.