Structural and functional studies of erythrocyte membrane-skeleton by single-cell and single-molecule techniques

As the indispensable oxygen-transporting cells,erythrocytes exhibit extreme deformability and amazing stability as they are subject to huge reversible shear stress and extrusion force during massive circulation in the body.The unique architecture of spectrin-actin-based membraneskeleton is considered to be responsible for such excellent mechanical properties of erythrocytes.Although erythrocytes have been recognized for more than 300 years,myriad questions about membrane-skeleton constantly attract people's attention.Here,we summarize the kinds of distinctive single-cell and single-molecule techniques that were used to investigate the structure and function of erythrocyte membrane-skeleton at macro and micro levels.