Correlazione tra accumulo di lipidi neutri nei linfomonociti e deficit cognitivo in una popolazione di ultrassessantacinquenni.

There is a great need for new research models, which are simple and accessible diagnostic procedures, to monitor progression of suspected age-related neurological disorders. Here, we determined whether changes in neutral lipids (NLs) and in the ability to form clusters represented early events occurring in freshly isolated (naïve) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from aged subjects affected by different neurological disorders. We examined 192 subjects, 65 years or older, attending the outpatient services of the geriatric care unit of Cagliari University Hospital for geriatric check-ups, analysing NLs by oil red O (ORO) staining method, and the rate of cluster formation (CF) of the subjects' PBMCs. ORO score was higher in PBMCs from subjects with any type of dementia than in PBMCs from controls. ORO score did not differ significantly between Alzheimer's disease (AD), mixed dementia (MD) and vascular dementia (VD), but in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), it was significantly higher than in controls, and significantly lower than in AD, MD and VD. There was also significant inverse correlation between ORO staining and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. CF showed a similar pattern to that of ORO, being significantly lower in controls than in dementia patients, and higher in dementia than in MCI. Subjects with dementia but not vision problems had lower ORO staining and CF scores than subjects with either eye disorders or dementia. We suggest that the presence of NLs in the cytoplasm of unstimulated-PBMCs, combined with their potential tendency to form clusters, may represent a novel, non-invasive approach to detecting and monitoring neuronal injury in the early stages of disease.