Tethers connecting daughter vesicles and parent red blood cell may be formed due to ordering of anisotropic membrane constituents

Vesiculation of red blood cells at high alkaline pH was studied experimentally and theoretically. It was observed that the red blood cell daughter vesicles can be connected to the parent cell by thin tubes (tethers). It is shown theoretically that the formation of tethers may be energetically favourable due to the quadrupolar ordering of the anisotropic membrane constituents in the strong curvature field of the tethers.