Aims

Disturbances in red blood cells' (RBCs) membrane structure, that result in altered rheological properties, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus(T2DM). However, the compositional alterations in RBCs membranes of T2DM patients have not been characterized in detail.

Methods

NMR-based lipidomic approach used for the global investigation of the lipidome of RBCs membrane in 20 newly diagnosed T2DM patients. Twenty healthy individuals served as controls.

Results

In the lipidomic analysis, the discrimination power among the two groups was of high significance. T2DM patients characterized by an increased content of cholesterol, total sphingolipids, sphingomyelin and glycolipids, and decreased total phospholipids, mainly due to phosphatidylethanolamine, total ether glycerolipids and plasmalogen-phospholipids, and higher cholesterol-to-phospholipids molecular ratio compared to controls. In T2DM, lipids were esterified with saturated rather than unsaturated fatty acids, an atherogenic pattern that may be involved in the impairment of membrane fluidity and rigidity.

Conclusions

NMR-based lipidomic analysis of RBCs can provide insights into molecular lipid features of membrane microenvironment that influence their vital function and rheological behavior in microvascular network in T2DM.Early identification of these disturbances, even before the onset of diabetes, could critically help to the development of novel preventative and curative therapies for reducing the risk of microvascular dysfunction.

中文翻译：

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改变的红细胞膜脂质组：2型糖尿病微血管损伤的可能致病联系

目标

红细胞 (RBC) 膜结构的紊乱导致流变特性改变，这与糖尿病 (T2DM) 微血管并发症的发病机制有关。然而，T2DM 患者红细胞膜的组成变化尚未详细描述。

方法

基于 NMR 的脂质组学方法用于对 20 名新诊断的 T2DM 患者的红细胞膜脂质组进行全球调查。二十名健康人作为对照。

结果

在脂质组学分析中，两组之间的辨别力具有高度显着性。与对照组相比，T2DM 患者的特征是胆固醇、总鞘脂、鞘磷脂和糖脂含量增加，而总磷脂含量降低，主要是由于磷脂酰乙醇胺、总醚甘油脂和缩醛磷脂-磷脂，以及较高的胆固醇-磷脂分子比。在 T2DM 中，脂质被饱和而不是不饱和脂肪酸酯化，这是一种可能与膜流动性和刚性受损有关的致动脉粥样硬化模式。

结论

基于 NMR 的 RBC 脂质组学分析可以深入了解膜微环境的分子脂质特征，这些特征会影响 T2DM 中微血管网络中的重要功能和流变行为。即使在糖尿病发病之前，早期识别这些干扰也可能对发展有重要帮助用于降低微血管功能障碍风险的新型预防和治疗疗法。