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Erythrocyte orientational and cell volume effects on NMR q-space analysis: simulations of restricted diffusion

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Abstract

Pulsed field-gradient spin echo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of water diffusing in erythrocytes leads to diffusion interference and diffraction effects, which are visualised in q-space plots of signal intensity versus the magnitude of the spatial wave-number vector q. Interpretation of the features of these q-space plots has been aided by Monte Carlo random walk simulations of diffusion in lattices of virtual erythrocytes. Here, the effect of varying the orientation of the cells with respect to the direction in which diffusion is measured, on the appearance of q-space plots, was investigated, together with the effect of changing the cell volume. We show that these changes are reflected in the appearance of the plots in a way that is diagnostic of the microscopic geometry of the sample.

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Abbreviations

Ht:

Haematocrit

MCV:

Mean cell volume

NMR:

Nuclear magnetic resonance

PGSE:

Pulsed field-gradient spin echo

RBC:

Red blood cell

RDW:

Red cell distribution width

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Bob Chapman for discussions regarding the programming, and Dr Guilhem Pages for assistance with the implementation of the second derivative method and discussions regarding q-space plots from suspensions of erythrocytes. The work was funded by a Discovery grant from the Australian Research Council to PWK and Dr Jamie Vandenberg. TJL was supported by a University of Sydney Postgraduate Award.

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Correspondence to Philip W. Kuchel.

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“Proteins, membranes and cells: the structure-function nexus”. Contributions from the annual scientific meeting (including a special symposium in honour of Professor Alex Hope of Flinders University, South Australia) of the Australian Society for Biophysics held in Canberra, ACT, Australia, September 28 to October 1, 2008.

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Larkin, T.J., Kuchel, P.W. Erythrocyte orientational and cell volume effects on NMR q-space analysis: simulations of restricted diffusion. Eur Biophys J 39, 139–148 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-009-0456-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-009-0456-7

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