Vesicle release from erythrocytes during storage and failure of rejuvenation to restore cell morphology.

During storage, discocyte-echinocyte transformation of erythrocytes occurs progressively and microvesicles release from the spicules in the form of membrane-encapsulated red cell fragments. After rejuvenation part of the membrane-deficient cells, mainly spheroechinocytes, transform into spherostomatocytes because of their inability of restoring the surface area to volume ratios of normal discocytes. The proportion of spherostomatocytes formed on rejuvenation increases with storage time. Numerical indices for characterizing the "level of reversion" and the "quality of reversion" were developed. Osmotic fragility curves and light scattering histograms also reflected a partially irreversible increase of inhomogeneity of stored cell populations.