Speaker:
Dr Lars, Kaestner, Saarland University, Germany
Abstract:
Red blood cells (RBCs) have been used as model cells to study membrane transport for decades. However, within the recent years it became evident that these rather simple cells maintain complex signalling networks. This is in the context that RBCs serve many more functions than just transporting oxygen.
Based on RBCs Calcium homeostasis I will sketch signalling cascades that have been explored recently. Furthermore I like to link molecular players to physiological and pathophysiological phenomena. For example, the molecular origin of hereditary anaemia is sometimes known but often obscure. However, in both situations, the molecular mechanism leading to the symptoms of the disease remain elusive, e.g. in sickle cell disease the genetic defect is for very long known to be in the haemoglobin, but it remains open how this mutation causes the pain crisis in the patients.
Here I present single-cell based methods that allow the investigation of functional properties of RBCs upon exposure to pharmacological and physical stimulation. Such the presentation is intended to be a mixture of methodological (maybe bioengineering) approaches and biomedical research