Background: Circulating red blood cells (RBCs) undergo aging, a fundamental physiological phenomenon that regulates their turnover.
Objective: Understanding the role of Aβ in the cross talk between cell signalling pathways and modulation of the cell structural and biomechanical properties occurring in RBCs during aging.
Methods: The morphological pattern has been monitored using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging and measuring the RBCs' plasma membrane roughness employed as a morphological parameter capable to provide information on the structure and integrity of the membrane-skeleton.
Results: We show that treatment with Aβ accelerates the occurrence of morphological and biochemical aging markers in human RBC and influences the cell metabolism. Biochemical data demonstrate that contemporaneously to morphological alterations, Aβ triggers: (i) metabolic alterations and (ii) a complex signaling pathway involving caspase 3, protein kinase C and nitric oxide derived metabolites.
Conclusions: our study provides a comprehensive picture in which Aβ treatment of RBC induces changes in specific cell signalling events and/or metabolic pathways, in turns affecting the membrane-cytoskeleton interaction and the membrane integrity.
Keywords: Amyloid beta peptide; PKC; RBC; atomic force microscopy; caspase 3; membrane roughness; nitric oxide synthase.