In Vitro Hemolysis Methods

"Hemolysis" refers to the decomposition of blood, particularly red blood cells. "In vitro hemolysis" literally means that hemolysis takes place in glass, implying that it takes place in the laboratory and not "in vivo," which means in a living creature. In vitro hemolysis is often a helpful procedure in lab tests. It can occur in several ways.

Physical Force

• Physical forces, such as centrifugal force, can produce in vitro hemolysis, often by accident with detrimental results. But sometimes inventors will deliberately use force to produce hemolysis in vitro, as when NASA was developing a pump designed to assist the action of the heart and tested various versions of the pump to see which one caused the least hemolysis.

Medical Methods

• For such medical purposes as analysis of oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells or isolation of white blood cells for analysis, medical technologists may produce hemolysis in vitro using some acid such as lactic acid in connection with a saponin. Pure water will produce hemolysis, but too slowly for medical purposes. Saponins are substances derived from such plants as the soapberry. In addition to their use in effecting in vitro hemolysis, they are also used in soaps and detergents.

Analyzing Hemolytic Agents

• Various minerals, such as chrysotile asbestos, quartz and titanium dioxide, are hemolytic agents. Investigators use such materials to produce in vitro hemolysis in order to study their effectiveness as hemolytic agents and to investigate factors that promote or inhibit their hemolytic activity.