["Hematological masks" of chronic viral hepatitis].

Aim: To reveal the structural features of the red blood cell membrane in patients with prolonged persistence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Materials And Methods: 61 patients with moderate and mild chronic viral hepatitis B and C were examined. A control group comprised 22 healthy donors. Fluorescence of the red blood cell membrane was performed, by using the following probes: pyrene, phenylnaphthylamine, 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate. The activity of the ion-transporting enzyme Na+, K(+)-ATPase was determined.

Results: Increases in the microviscosity of the lipid bilayer, periprotein lipid environment, as well as the structural modification of the surface layers of the membrane were found in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C. The activity of the membrane-bound enzyme Na+, K(+)-ATPase was statistically significantly decreased as compared with that in healthy donors.

Conclusion: In HBV and HCV infection, the impairments of the red blood system are highly diversified: they involve bone marrow compartment of an erythron, as earlier shown, and its peripheral one. Molecular disorganization of the red blood cell membrane fails to present with obvious red blood cell dysfunctions. Despite the multifactorial property of their occurrence, impairments of the red blood system are mediated and corrected by many regulatory mechanisms at different organizational levels and may be compensated.