Monitoring of membrane phospholipid scrambling in human erythrocytes and K562 cells with FM1-43 — a comparison with annexin V-FITC

The styryl dye FM1-43 becomes highly fluorescent upon binding to cell membranes. The breakdown of membrane phospholipid asymmetry in ionophore-stimulated T-lymphocytes further increases this fluorescence [Zweifach, 2000]. In this study, the capacity of FM1-43 to monitor membrane phospholipid scrambling was explored using flow cytometry in human erythrocytes and human erythrocyte progenitor K562 cells. The Ca(2+)-dependent phosphatidylserine-specific probe annexin V-FITC was used for comparison. The presented data show that the loss of phospholipid asymmetry that could be induced in human erythrocytes by elevated intracellular Ca(2+) or by structurally different membrane intercalated amphiphilic compounds increases the FM1-43 fluorescence two- to fivefold. The profile of FM1-43 fluorescence for various treatments resembles that of phosphatidylserine exposure reported by annexin V-FITC. FM1-43 detected the onset of scrambling more efficiently than annexin V-FITC. The amphiphile-induced scrambling was shown to be a Ca(2+)-independent process. Monitoring of scrambling in K562 cells caused by NEM-induced Ca(2+)-release from intracellular stores and by Ca(2+) and ionophore A23187 treatment showed that the increase in FM1-43 fluorescence correlated well with the number of annexin V-FITC-detected phosphatidylserine-positive cells. The results presented here show the usefulness of FM1-43 as a Ca(2+)-independent marker of dissipation in asymmetric membrane phospholipid distribution induced by various stimuli in both nucleated and non-nucleated cells. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.2478/s11658-014-0195-3 and is accessible for authorized users.