VARIABILITY OF THE IRON, COPPER AND MERCURY CONTENTS OF INDIVIDUAL RED BLOOD CELLS'

The relative iron, copper and mercury contents of individual, isolated erythrocytes from eight people were determined by analytical electron microscopy. The variation in iron content between erythrocytes of the same sample is more than six times, for copper content more than ten times and for mercury more than five times. Similar variations were observed for 1-day-old chick definitive erythrocytes and for 4-day-old chick embryo primitive erythroeytes. The range of variation does not depend greatly, if at all, on the age of the erythrocytes or the tissue of origin. There is little or no correlation between the variation of iron content and that of copper. The cause of the wide variation of metallic ion content among erythrocytes is not yet known. The electron-probe microanalyzer and its