page_title: Acanthocyte
section_title: Pathophysiology
hierarchical_section_title: Acanthocyte / Pathophysiology
caption_attribution_description: Acanthocytes on the peripheral blood smear of a patient with abetalipoproteinemia.
context_page_description: Acanthocyte, in biology and medicine, refers to an abnormal form of red blood cell that has a spiked cell membrane, due to thorny projections. A similar term is spur cells. Often they may be confused with echinocytes or schistocytes.
  Acanthocytes have coarse, weirdly spaced, variably sized crenations, resembling many-pointed stars. They are seen on blood films in, among others abetalipoproteinemia, liver disease, chorea acanthocytosis, McLeod syndrome, and several inherited neurological and other disorders, such as neuroacanthocytosis, anorexia nervosa, infantile pyknocytosis, hypothyroidism, idiopathic neonatal hepatitis, alcoholism, congestive splenomegaly, Zieve syndrome, and chronic granulomatous disease.
context_section_description: Acanthocytes arise from either alterations in membrane lipids or structural proteins. Alterations in membrane lipids are seen in abetalipoproteinemia and liver dysfunction. Alteration in membrane structural proteins are seen in neuroacanthocytosis and McLeod syndrome.
  In liver dysfunction, apolipoprotein A-II deficient lipoprotein accumulates in plasma causing increased cholesterol in RBCs. This causes abnormalities of membrane of RBC causing remodeling in spleen and formation of acanthocytes.
  In abetalipoproteinemia, there is deficiency of lipids and vitamin E causing abnormal morphology of RBCs.
caption: Acanthocytosis in a patient with abetalipoproteinemia
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