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Abstract:
Like all other cells, the red blood cells are surrounded by a hydrophobic lipid bilayer that is virtually impermeable for hydro-philic anions such as HCO3− and Cl−. Nevertheless, the HCO3− -Cl− exchange that constitutes an important step in CO2 transport by the blood, is completed within the short time that the red cells pass through the capillary bed of the peripheral tissues or the lung (less than one second). Hence there must exist a transport system that facilitates the anion exchange across the bilayer. This transport system consists of one of the most abundant integral membrane proteins of the red blood cell membrane, the so-called band 3 protein (Cabantchik and Rothstein, 1974; Passow, Fasold, Zaki, Schuhmann and Lepke, 1975).
