Comunicazione
Exploring metabolic approaches for assessing and managing diabetes-related complications.
Bianchetti G., Abeltino A., Serantoni C., Riente A., De Spirito M., Maulucci G.
Diabetes mellitus is a multi-factorial pathology characterized by hyperglycemia and metabolic impairments in lipid turnover. These factors may induce severe alterations in the normal morphology and functioning of the vasculature, thus resulting in the development of several complications, among which diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the largest responsible for blindness. Since DR has been strictly related to functional alterations of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB), I provided a comprehensive functional and molecular characterization of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, obtained through machine-learning--based metabolic imaging, and further comparison with lipidomic features obtained from erythrocytes of diabetic patients with diagnosed DR. The observed interesting similarities between these two systems pave the way for the application of these approaches also in clinical practice, highlighting the potential role of erythrocytes as an early biomarker as well as the importance of evaluating metabolic approaches for assessing and managing the risk of developing diabetes-related complications.