Membrane lipid composition of red blood cells in liver disease: regression of spur cell anaemia after infusion of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine.

The morphology of red blood cells was studied in 30 patients with severe liver cirrhosis, in 10 patients with extrahepatic jaundice, and in 10 control subjects. In all the patients with extrahepatic jaundice more than 30% of red blood cells were target cells with increased resistance to osmotic lysis. In 12 patients with liver cirrhosis more than 30% of red blood cells were spur cells. The cholesterol: phospholipids (C/PL) molar ratio was 0.89 in target cells, 1.33 in spur cells, and 0.74 in normal red blood cells. The red blood cell membrane cholesterol and phospholipids exchanged with plasma lipoproteins, the lipid composition of which was studied in eight patients with spur cells; the free cholesterol: phospholipid (FC/PL) molar ratio was 0.33 (0.16 in the controls) in high density lipoproteins (HDL) and 1.40 (0.82 in the controls) in low density lipoproteins (LDL); in these patients the polyunsaturated fatty acid content was low in both phospholipids and cholesterol esters of lipoproteins. The irregular folds of the spur cells regressed when polyunsaturated lecithin was infused (2 g daily for five days) in eight patients with spur cell anaemia; the infusions decreased both C/PL ratio in RC to 0.88 and the concentration of unconjugated bilirubin (104.3 to 82.0 mumol/l (6.1 to 4.8 mg%)), whereas the activity of the plasma lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) increased from 31.2 to 54.4 mumol/l/h. Polyunsaturated fatty acid content of RC lecithin increased after the infusion as it did in HDL, the FC/PL ratio of which decreased to 0.23.