From Skin Fibroblasts to Neural Stem Cells to Investigate in Vitro the Impact of Diabetes on Adult Neurogenesis.

Obesity and glucose intolerance or overt diabetes are increasing at an alarming rate in the population, and are bound to become a public health issue and a major cause of disability, loss of independence and high social costs in the near future. A large body of evidence has in recent years highlighted, among the negative effects of overnutrition and glucose dysmetabolism, also an acceleration of cognitive decline and of brain senescence, through cellular (vascular, neuronal, or both) and molecular mechanisms still incompletely clarified. Understanding how overweight and impaired glucose homeostasis negatively affect brain function represents both a major scientific challenge and an avenue to early detection and possibly prevention of this invalidating complication. The aim of this project is to obtain neuronal progenitor-like cells from skin fibroblasts in order to correlate patient-specific metabolism to adult neural stem cell (NSC) and neuronal function in vitro.

Inclusion Criteria:Patients of both sexes with BMI < 25 (normal weight) and BMI > 30 (obese) with or without DM2T with an indication for surgeryExclusion Criteria:Malignant neoplastic diseases