Blood biomarkers of alcohol abuse.

The biological, clinical and social effects of alcohol abuse call for objective and specific biomarkers of alcohol-related diseases and early detection of alcohol consumers at risk. Alcohol abusers may exhibit several clinical and/or chemical changes. Changes in parameters such as gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) may serve as biomarkers of chronic alcoholism.

Effect of pH on red blood cell deformability.

The effect of pH on the red blood cell (RBC) deformability, which is a consequence of a change of cell membrane elastic properties is studied experimentally. With the intention to reduce the effects on deformability of cell geometry and cytoplasmic viscosity, we measured the deformability of the cells with the same volume at various pH of cell suspension from 6.2 to 8.