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The Red Blood Cell, Second Edition, Volume II provides a comprehensive treatment and review of basic biomedical knowledge about the circulating, adult red blood cell. This book discusses the transport through red cell membranes; carrier-mediated glucose transport across human red cell membranes; and metabolism of methemoglobin in human erythrocytes. The interaction of oxygen and carbon dioxide with hemoglobin at the molecular level; physiological role of the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve; hemoglobinopathies; and thalassemia syndromes are also deliberated. This publication likewise covers the red cell genetic polymorphisms; biological life of the red cell; clinical indications for red cells and blood; and biophysical behavior of red cells in suspensions. Other topics include the electrokinetic behavior of red cells; erythrocyte as a biopsy tissue in the evaluation of nutritional status; and knowledge of red cell purine and pyrimidine metabolism coming from the study of human disease. This volume is recommended for students, researchers, teachers, and physicians aiming to acquire knowledge of the red blood cell.

In the last six years, a remarkable series of stUdies have demonstrated an intimate relationship between red cell metabolism and the function of the cell as an organ of gas transport. First came the demonstration of binding of organic phosphocompounds of the red cell to hemoglobin; this was followed by studies that demonstrated modification of hemoglobin oxygen affinity by such binding. At present we are in an exhilirating phase of accrual of data showing that the levels of these phosphorylated inter mediates can be rapidly altered in the red cell to modulate hemo globin function. At one time it was said that the red cell was an inert bag full of hemoglobin. Now we know not only that the cell has an active metabolism crucial to its viability, but that this metabolism is just as crucial to the whole organism in the proper adjustment of oxygen transport. On October first, second and third, 1969, red cell biochemists, general biochemists, geneticists, cardio-pulmonary physiologists, exercise physiologists, experts in blood storage, and represen tatives from many other disciplines met in the Towsley Center for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to present recent findings and discuss developments in this new interdisciplinary field. The meeting was dedicated to Dr. Alfred Chanutin, Professor Emeritus of the University of Virginia, to honor his retirement in 1967 and in recognition of his great contributions to the studies outlined in the first paragraph of this preface.