Insights into the morphological pattern of erythrocytes' aging: Coupling quantitative AFM data to microcalorimetry and Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Erythrocytes (RBCs) constitute a very interesting class of cells both for their physiological function and for a variety of peculiarities. Due to their exceptionally strong relationship with the environment, the morphology and nanoscale characteristics of these cells can reveal their biochemical status and structural integrity. Among the possible subjects of investigations, the RBCs' ageing is of the utmost importance. This is a fundamental phenomenon that, in physiological conditions, triggers the cell turnover and ensures the blood homeostasis. With these premises, in recent years, we have presented an atomic force microscopy-based methodology to characterize the patterns of RBC ageing from the morphological point of view. In the present work, we used an ageing protocol more similar to the physiological conditions and we used differential scanning calorimetry and atomic force microscopy to probe the cross correlation between important structural and functional proteins. We also assessed the role played by fundamental structural and membrane proteins in the development of the most relevant morphological intermediates observed along the ageing. Furthermore, we coupled the morphological ageing patterns to the (bio)chemical alterations detected by Raman spectroscopy. This allowed identifying the chronology of the ageing morphologies and the metabolic pathways most involved in their development. As a whole, the present study provides the base to correlate specific molecular alterations to the development of structural anomalies, and these latter to the functional status of blood cells.

Identification of Oxidative Stress in Red Blood Cells with Nanoscale Chemical Resolution by Infrared Nanospectroscopy

“…Here, the ageing path of erythrocytes has been followed by monitoring the behaviour of the most typical morphologies that indicate the progress of cell senescence: namely, biconcave, spherocytes and echynocytes. Each of these morphological phenotypes characterize a given ageing time and results from a specific protein structure and cytoskeleton-to-membrane interactions [ 43 ].…”

Modification of blood serum DSC profiles by sauna treatments in cross-country skiers during the exercise cycle

“…The thermal denaturation of the proteins contained in the blood sera is observed in serum DSC profile as complex endothermic transition. At first sight, at least two or three peaks can be distinguished in this transition for healthy people, depending on the serum proteome and the solvent used [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Mean DSC curves of aqueous solutions of human blood sera samples collected from participants of our study at three time points (before sauna treatments, after 1 sauna treatment and after 10 sauna treatments) are shown in Fig.…”

“…Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) has found wide application in medical and biological sciences [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Attempts to use the DSC method for clinical purposes have been made for several years [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. DSC profiles of blood serum, plasma, synovial fluid, cerebrospinal fluid are very useful because they can be a valuable source of information about alterations in these physiological fluids caused by different diseases or treatments.…”

Nanoscale Changes on RBC Membrane Induced by Storage and Ionizing Radiation: A Mini-Review

“…Disturbances in the interaction between the cytoskeleton and the lipid bilayer may lead to microparticle detachment (Leal et al, 2018;Freitas Leal et al, 2020). This cooperative phenomenon affects the structure and conformation of spectrin and actin proteins, located in the cytoskeleton, the two domain structures of band 3, one of them present in the cytosol and the other in the lipid bilayer and the ankyrin-binding protein (Kim et al, 2015;Lux, 2016;Dinarelli et al, 2018). The formation of band 3-IgG complexes and phosphatidylserine exposure can also promote vesiculation (Girasole et al, 2010;Huisjes et al, 2018).…”