ИСТИНА

Red blood cells (RBC) play one of the key roles in blood microrheology which is mainly defined by two processes in which RBCs involved. RBC aggregation determines blood viscosity, while RBC deformability and adhesion to endothelium impacts both vessel resistance to the blood flow and viscosity. Alterations of RBC aggregation, deformability and their adhesion to the endothelial cells may cause negative consequences in number of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, arterial hypertension and sickle cell anemia. In turn, RBC properties depend on various factors, one of which is concentration of signaling molecules in the blood. One of such molecules is nitric oxide (NO) which is mainly produced by endothelial cells via endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) enzyme in circulatory system. The only substrate of this reaction is L-arginine amino acid. There are multiple data suggesting that NO increases deformability and reduces aggregation of RBC. Thus, study of NO, RBC and endothelium interplay represents both fundamental and clinical interest.