Osmotic properties of human red cells.

When an osmotic pressure gradient is applied to human red cells, the volume changes anomalously, as if there were a significant fraction of "nonosmotic water" which could not serve as solvent for the cell solutes, a finding which has been discussed widely in the literature. In 1968, Gary-Bobo and Solomon (J. Gen. Physiol. 52:825) concluded that the anomalies could not be entirely explained by the colligative properties of hemoglobin (Hb) and proposed that there was an additional concentration dependence of the Hb charge (ZHb). A number of investigators, particularly Freedman and Hoffman (1979, J. Gen. Physiol. 74:157) have been unable to confirm Gary-Bobo and Solomon's experimental evidence for this concentration dependence of ZHb and we now report that we are also unable to repeat the earlier experiments. Nonetheless, there still remains a significant anomaly which amounts to 12.5 +/- 0.8% of the total isosmotic cell water (P much less than 0.0005, t test), even after taking account of the concentration dependence of the Hb osmotic coefficient and all the other known physical chemical constraints, ideal and nonideal. It is suggested that the anomalies at high Hb concentration in shrunken cells may arise from the ionic strength dependence of the Hb osmotic coefficient. In swollen red cells at low ionic strength, solute binding to membrane and intracellular proteins is increased and it is suggested that this factor may account, in part, for the anomalous behavior of these cells.