Flicker in erythrocytes. ?vibratory movements in the cytoplasm??

✍ Scribed by Parpart, Arthur K. ;Hoffman, Josep H. F.

• Book ID: 102309818
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1956
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 460 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030470208

✦ Synopsis

There have been a number of recent accounts of a "vibratory moverrierit in the cytoplasm of erythrocytes, " (Pulvertaft, '49; Blowers et al., '51) and a brief historical note by Tompkins ( '53). Under proper optical conditions (phase, darkfield and television microscopy) a normal erythrocyte appears to be undergoing a rhythmical and random alteration of optical density throughout its volume. This phenomenon is frequently called flicker.

The interpretation of this phenomenon offered by the foregoing authors is that the concentration of hemoglobin within the red cell varies from moment to moment in any given region of the cell and hence the observed optical density changes. Blowers et al. ( '51)' have presented data which they believe indicate that this phenomenon is linked to the metabolic (glycolytic) activity of the cell.