红细胞膜上的唾液酸(Sialic acid,SA)具有重要的生理功能。循环红细胞衰老后SA减少20～30％,这可能就是网状内皮系统能以识别和捕捉衰老红细胞的原因。我们在研究地中海贫血时,发现其红细胞膜上的SA比正常少25％,因此,我们对地中海贫血红细胞膜表面的SA分布进行了超微观察,发现除量少以外,分布也不均匀。借助于三种组织化学方法,在透射式电子显微镜下我们对比了地中海贫血患者红细胞与正常的差 Sialic acid (Sialic acid, SA) on the erythrocyte membrane has important physiological functions. Reduce the aging of circulating red blood cells SA 20 to 30%, which may be the reticuloendothelial system to identify and capture the causes of aging red blood cells. When we studied thalassemia, we found that the SA on erythrocyte membrane was 25% less than normal. Therefore, we observed the SA distribution on the surface of thalassemic erythrocyte membrane by ultramicroscopy and found that the distribution was not uniform except for the small amount. With the aid of three histochemical methods, we compared the difference of erythrocytes from normal in thalassemia patients under transmission electron microscope