TY - JOUR
T1 - Red blood cells membrane micropolarity as a novel diagnostic indicator of type 1 and type 2 diabetes
AU - Bianchetti, Giada
AU - Bianchetti, Giada
AU - Di Giacinto, Flavio
AU - Pitocco, Dario
AU - Rizzi, Alessandro
AU - Rizzo, Gaetano Emanuele
AU - De Leva, Francesca
AU - Flex, Andrea
AU - Di Stasio, Enrico
AU - Ciasca, Gabriele
AU - De Spirito, Marco
AU - Maulucci, Giuseppe
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Classification of the category of diabetes is extremely important for clinicians to diagnose and select the correct treatment plan. Glycosylation, oxidation and other post-translational modifications of membrane and transmembrane proteins, as well as impairment in cholesterol homeostasis, can alter lipid density, packing, and interactions of Red blood cells (RBC) plasma membranes in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, thus varying their membrane micropolarity. This can be estimated, at a submicrometric scale, by determining the membrane relative permittivity, which is the factor by which the electric field between the charges is decreased relative to vacuum. Here, we employed a membrane micropolarity sensitive probe to monitor variations in red blood cells of healthy subjects (n=16) and patients affected by type 1 (T1DM, n=10) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM, n=24) to provide a cost-effective and supplementary indicator for diabetes classification. We find a less polar membrane microenvironment in T2DM patients, and a more polar membrane microenvironment in T1DM patients compared to control healthy patients. The differences in micropolarity are statistically significant among the three groups (p<0.01). The role of serum cholesterol pool in determining these differences was investigated, and other factors potentially altering the response of the probe were considered in view of developing a clinical assay based on RBC membrane micropolarity. These preliminary data pave the way for the development of an innovative assay which could become a tool for diagnosis and progression monitoring of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
AB - Classification of the category of diabetes is extremely important for clinicians to diagnose and select the correct treatment plan. Glycosylation, oxidation and other post-translational modifications of membrane and transmembrane proteins, as well as impairment in cholesterol homeostasis, can alter lipid density, packing, and interactions of Red blood cells (RBC) plasma membranes in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, thus varying their membrane micropolarity. This can be estimated, at a submicrometric scale, by determining the membrane relative permittivity, which is the factor by which the electric field between the charges is decreased relative to vacuum. Here, we employed a membrane micropolarity sensitive probe to monitor variations in red blood cells of healthy subjects (n=16) and patients affected by type 1 (T1DM, n=10) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM, n=24) to provide a cost-effective and supplementary indicator for diabetes classification. We find a less polar membrane microenvironment in T2DM patients, and a more polar membrane microenvironment in T1DM patients compared to control healthy patients. The differences in micropolarity are statistically significant among the three groups (p<0.01). The role of serum cholesterol pool in determining these differences was investigated, and other factors potentially altering the response of the probe were considered in view of developing a clinical assay based on RBC membrane micropolarity. These preliminary data pave the way for the development of an innovative assay which could become a tool for diagnosis and progression monitoring of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
KW - Diabetes mellitus
KW - Fluorescence lifetime microscopy
KW - Membrane micropolarity
KW - Metabolic imaging
KW - Personalized medicine
KW - Red blood cells
KW - Diabetes mellitus
KW - Fluorescence lifetime microscopy
KW - Membrane micropolarity
KW - Metabolic imaging
KW - Personalized medicine
KW - Red blood cells
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/165495
U2 - 10.1016/j.acax.2019.100030
DO - 10.1016/j.acax.2019.100030
M3 - Article
SN - 0003-2670
VL - 3
SP - 100030-N/A
JO - Analytica Chimica Acta
JF - Analytica Chimica Acta
ER -