Deformability of erythrocytes incubated at various pH-values.

The deformability of human erythrocytes was studied at pH values ranging from 6.4 to 8.5 using micropipette aspiration of whole cells. Also the mean cell volume was measured in dependence on pH. The observed high increase of the transit pressure pt with lowering of the pH in a fairly narrow interval suggests that within the range of pH values under consideration pi is mainly controlled by the effect of the critical volume of the cells.