Note on the Experimental Evidence for Quantum Mechanical Coherence in Red Blood Cells

Frolich's theory of coherent excitations in biological systems (Frolich, 1968, 1980) predicts interactions between living cells at distances greater than the range of chem­ ical forces. To exhibit such an interaction the theory requires the cells to have, as is normal, a membrane potential, a supply of energy and, of course, an intact structure. Such an interaction between human red blood cells at a distance of several micro­ metres has been experimentally demonstrated by one method (Rowlands et ai., 1982a, b) and confirmed by another (Fritz, 1984). The interaction disappears when the structure of the cells is disorganised and it disappears reversibly if either the mem­ brane potential or the supply of energy is brought to zero. In the original experiments (Rowlands et ai., 1982a) the Brownian motion of hu­ man red blood cells in anticoagulated blood was recorded by time-lapse cinemato­ graphy. When red cells touch they adhere and, as time goes on, unique aggregates form (named rouleaux). The observed rate of aggregation of normal cells is signifi­ cantly greater than (a) that predicted by Einstein's theory of the brownian motion, (b) the rate of aggregation of plastic microspheres of comparable size, (c) the rate of aggregation of red cells treated with a noxious agent, (d) the rate of aggregation of red cells with either zero membrane potential or zero energy. In this last case (d) restoration of the membrane potential or of the energy stores returns the rate of aggregation to the range for normal living cells. Smoluchowski's analysis of the kinetics of aggregation under Brownian motion (see Chandrasekhar, 1943) shows that this interaction of human red cells occurs at a distance of several micrometres. Miiller-Herold et ai., (1987) assert that changes in the shape and size of red blood cells, when the membrane potential or the energy stores are lowered, invalidates the evidence outlined above. Reference to Rowlands et al. (1982a) will show that the ef­ fects of such shape or size changes were compensated for in the design of the study as