Experimental Haemolytic Anaemia with Particular Reference to the Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentrations of the Erythrocytes

A METHOD for determining the refractive index of living cells was described by Barer and Ross in 1952, and it was shown that the coiicentrations of solids and of water could be deduced from the data. As the haemoglobin in the mammalian erythrocyte accounts for approximately 97 per cent of the total solids, the method can be applied to haemoglobinometry. Unlike other methods, the haemoglobin concentration in individual cells can be estimated and the distribution in any one population determined. The method depends on immersing cells in protein solutions of different refractive indices and observing them by phase-contrast microscopy. A detailed account of the basic principles and technique of cell refractometry has been given by Barer and Joseph (1954; I ~ S S ~ , b) and Barer (1956), and it is intended to publish elsewhere a general discussion of its applications to haematology and the results obtained with the erythrocytes of normal persons (Barer, Gaffney and Joseph, 1957). A survey of nearly 500 patients with haematological disorders has also been undertaken (Gaffney, 1957). Interesting results were obtained in some types of haemolytic anaemias: they could be divided into two groups, one in which the distribution of corpuscular haemoglobin concentrations fell within normal limits, and the other in which it was shifted to values greater than normal. This preliminary investigation of clinical material suggested that there might be some correlation between supra-normal values of corpuscular haenioglobin concentration and the presence of spherocytes. The purpose ofthe present paper is to demonstrate that in guinea-pigs in which haemolytic anaemia is produced experimentally by means of a haemolytic antiserum, spherocytes have haemoglobin concentrations greater than normal erythrocytes and that reticulocytes, during active blood regeneration, have concentrations less than normal.