Are there gas cavities in red blood cells

Many of marine single‐cell organisms (phytoplankton) have gas cavities which allow them to keep their life cycle. Existence of gas cavities can essentially have an influence on acoustic and mechanical properties of cells. It seems reasonable to suppose that such cavities can also exist in erythrocites, life cycle of which is related to gas exchange. The present work was aimed on measurements of acoustomechanical properties of human red blood cells to reveal their gas cavities. The velocities of erythrocite sedimentation (VES) in natural conditions and under compression/decompression were measured. The VES was found to increase considerably under or after compression/decompression. The effect was observed both for blood from healthy and sick people. Special microscope observations of sedimentation process allowed findings that compression/decompression changes the natural orientation of erythrocites: after compression/decompression their main planes become vertical instead of horizontal for natural conditi...