Nutrition often has consequences on health, in terms of metabolic activity and physiology, that can be correlated to alterations induced at the level of the cellular structure and particularly to the plasmatic membrane. In this framework, erythrocytes, the most abundant among blood cells, are ideal model systems to monitor the consequences of inadequate dietary regimes. Modern scan-ning probe microscopies, such as AFM, allow a quantitative characterization of single erythrocytes, which correlates it with the overall cellular integrity, in order to measure the cellular biomechanic properties that are altered in presence of pathologies. The morphometric parameters can be correlated with the main metabolic pathways, produc-ing a complete overview of the cellular status and health.
This set of technical, methodological and scientific capabilities can be applied to the determination of the effect of nutrition and health in various physiological (ageing) and pathologic conditions (metabolic imbalance, intolerances, allergies, enzymatic deficiencies and blood diseases)
Staff: Marco Girasole, Giovanni Longo, Simone Dinarelli
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