Interactions between cyclodextrins and cellular components: Towards greener medical applications?

Leclercq, Loïc

In addition, sub-hemolytic concentrations of native CDs are also demonstrated to cause shape changes in human erythrocytes. The hemolytic effect is concomitant with shape changes (from biconcave discocyte to stomatocyte or echinocyte) depending on the cavity size of the CDs. For instance, α-and γ-CD induce progressive shape changes from discocytes into stomatocytes and from stomatocytes into spherocytes [58] . In contrast, β-CD leads only to swelling of erythrocytes. Similar effects are found for chemically modified CDs. [74] . Finally, it is noteworthy that the presence of DM-α-CD and DM-β-CD also leads to hemolysis. As cholesterol interacts with markedly higher affinity with sphingolipids (e.g., sphingomyelin) than with Scheme 2: Proposed mechanism for morphological changes in erythrocytes induced by methylated CDs.