The effects of low-intensity He-Ne laser irradiation on erythrocyte metabolism

Low-intensity laser irradiation (LILI) can improve the deformability of red blood cells (RBCs). It might be due to the LILI effects on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) level. However, ATP content may not be a valid surrogate marker for RBC deformability. The LILI effects on RBC glycolysis were studied in this paper. Hypertonic RBCs were used in this study. After 5 min irradiation with low-intensity He-Ne laser irradiation (LHNL) at 632.8 nm and 4.4 mW/cm2, the concentration of intracellular glucose and the activities of phosphofructokinase (PFK) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were measured, respectively. There was no significant change in intracellular glucose concentration. The activity of PFK decreased significantly, but the activity of GAPDH increased significantly. In hypertonic RBCs, LHNL irradiation may decrease the activity of energy-consuming enzymes, but increases the activity of energy-generating enzymes in glycolysis, to improve the RBC deformability.