Kuchel P W, Durrant C J, Chapman B E, Jarrett P S, Regan D G
Department of Biochemistry, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
J Magn Reson. 2000 Aug;145(2):291-301. doi: 10.1006/jmre.2000.2093.
The alignment of human erythrocytes in aqueous suspensions in the magnetic field B(0) (called the z-direction) of an NMR spectrometer was shown by calculating the diffusion tensor for water in the sample. The diffusion was measured using a pulsed-field-gradient spin-echo NMR method. The extent of diffusion anisotropy for water was exemplified by the values of the apparent diffusion coefficients with erythrocytes of normal shape and volume: for a typical experiment the values for the x-, y-, and z-directions were (6.88 +/- 0.17) x 10(-10), (7.07 +/- 0.17) x 10(-10), and (10.20 +/- 0.17) x 10(-10) m(2) s(-1), respectively. Cells in hypo- and hyperosmotic media were also studied and they too showed the anisotropy of the apparent diffusion coefficients but the extents were different. A new method of data analysis was developed using the Standard Add-On Packages in a Mathematica program. The experimental findings support evidence of erythrocyte alignment that was previously obtained with a high-field-gradient q-space method.
