Spectrin and Related Molecule
Abstract
Volume 23, Issue 2 (1988) 171 SPECTRIN AND RELATED MOLECULES Author: Steven R. Goodman Cell and Molecular Biology Center; and Department of Physiology The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center The Pennsylvania State University Hershey, Pennsylvania Keith E. Krebs Carol F. Whitfield Beat M. Riederer Department of Physiology The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center The Pennsylvania State University Hershey, Pennsylvania Ian S. Zagon Department of Anatomy The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center The Pennsylvania State University Hershey, Pennsylvania Referee: Marguerite M. B. Kay Division of Geriatric Medicine Department of Medicine: and the Departments of Medicine. Medical Biochemistry and Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology Texas A&M University College of Medicine College Station, Texas DEDICATION This review is dedicated to Benjamin Dwight Goodman I. INTRODUCTION Erythrocyte spectrin is the major component of a skeletal protein meshwork which lines the cytoplasmic surface of the red cell membrane. This structure has been termed the membrane skeleton in order to distinguish it from cytoskeletal structures which traverse the cytoplasm of nucleated cells. The spectrin membrane skeleton plays several roles essential to normal red cell physiology including maintaining the shape of the erythrocyte, allowing it the property of reversible deformability when faced with a range of