Electro-insertion of xeno-glycophorin into the red blood cell membrane.

The electroporation technique, with field strengths slightly below the critical value Ec for electroporation of red blood cells (RBC), enables the insertion of xeno-proteins into the RBC membrane without damaging the cells. The electro-insertion has been used to insert biotinylated human glycophorin into human RBC membrane and human glycophorin into murine RBC membrane. Binding anti-human glycophorin antibody (10F7) to the murine RBC bearing human glycophorin indicates extracellular orientation of inserted glycophorin. Insertion of about 10(5) glycophorin molecule per cell has been estimated by whole cell ELISA.