A biconcave disc — also referred to as a discocyte
— is a geometric shape resembling an
oblate spheroid with two
concavities on the top and on the bottom.
Biconcave discs appear in the study of
cell biology, where it is
meta-stable
In chemistry and physics, metastability denotes an intermediate energetic state within a dynamical system other than the system's state of least energy.
A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball ...
, and involves the continuous adjustment of the asymmetric transbilayer lipid distribution, which is correlated with
ATP depletion.
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Mathematical model
A biconcave disc can be described mathematically by
:
where is the height of the surface as a function of radius , is the diameter of the disc, and are coefficients describing the shape. The above model describes a smooth surface; actual cells can be much more irregular.
Biology
Erythrocytes
Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek ''erythros'' for "red" and ''kytos'' for "holl ...
are in the shape of a biconcave disc. A erythrocyte is also known as a red blood cell and transports oxygen to and from tissues.
References
Cell biology
Geometric shapes
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