Reactive effect of low intensity he-ne laser upon damaged ultrastructure of human erythrocyte membrane in fenton system by atomic force microscopy

To find out the mechanism of modulating the deformability of erythrocytes with low intensity He-Ne laser action, we studied the effect of low intensity He-Ne laser on the ultrastructure of human erythrocyte membrane. Erythrocytes were treated with free radicals from a Fenton reaction system before exposing them to low intensity He-Ne laser. The ultrastructure of damaged erythrocyte membrane was examined by atomic force microscopy. The results showed that the erythrocyte membrane became very rough and the molecules on the surface of the membrane congregated into particles of different magnitudes sizes after treating with free radicals. Comparing the degree of congregation of the molecular particles in the non-irradiated group and the He-Ne laser irradiated (9 mW and 18 mW) group, we found the average size of molecular particles in the laser irradiated group was smaller than that in the non-irradiated group, indicating that the low intensity laser had repairing function to the damage of erythrocyte membrane produced by the free radicals.