The destruction of erythrocytes has been thought to be based on the running down of enzyme activity due to aging. But several problems still exist in this hypothesis.
In this paper, young and old erythrocyte fractions were separated by twice ultracentrifugation, then the biological studies dealing with pentose phosphate pathway and some glycolytic enzymes were made on these erythrocyte fractions.
From the results following conclusions may be drawn:
1. The activities of total glycolysis, G-6-PD, glutathione reductase and pyruvate kinase were observed to be low in old red cells.
2. In mature erythrocytes, energy production is mainly dependent on EMBDEN-MEYERHOF pathway (EMP) and partly on pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). PPP/EMP ratio revealed high value in immature erythrocytes was gr adually decreased following maturation. a In spite of increase of total glycolysis the acti vity of PPP was markedly decreased in an anoxic state. These phenomena may also be observed in vivo.
4. From above data it is postulated that the decrease of activity of PPP may plays a main role in the destruction of physiologically aged erythrocytes.
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