摘要：The effects of intracellular ribavirin on morphology and redistribution of phosphatidylserine (PS) in human erythrocytes were examined. Erythrocytes were incubated with 1 m M ribavirin in the presence/absence of dipyridamole, an inhibitor of es -type nucleoside transporter. Intracellular ribavirin was accumulated in erythrocytes with the concentration of 1361 μ M , which corresponds to the blood level in patients receiving ribavirin. Dipyridamole reduced ribavirin accumulation by 40.7% (807 μ M ) via inhibiting es -type nucleoside transporter on erythrocytes. Morphological transformation into echinocytic form was observed in 86.4% of the erythrocytes treated with ribavirin. Dipyridamole pre-treatment decreased the morphological change to 20.0%. Ribavirin increased the PS-exposing cells compared with control (2.15% vs. 0.87%). PS-exposing cells were also decreased by inhibiting ribavirin accumulation with dipyridamole (0.62%). The results suggest that intracellular ribavirin induces morphological change and PS exposure in erythrocytes and accelerates erythrophagocytosis in the reticuloendothelial system.
