Biology subjects

Scuderi, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Scuderi, C..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Role of Hypertrophic Adipocytes, Collagen VI and CD38 in Fat Fibrosis of Patients with Obesity

Fat fibrosis correlates to metabolic consequences in patients with obesity, and is due to three types of collagen: I and III (fibrillar) and VI (non-fibrillar). In this sudy the extent of fibrosis in obese patients (n 50) was significant only in visceral parenchymal fat (4.7% vs 2.5% in controls (n 15) P<0.0001) and not in subcutaneous fat. Electron microscopy, in vivo and in vitro data, suggested that obese adipocytes are responsible for fibrillar collagen (I and III) production. COL6 (gene producing the non fibrillar form) resulted less expressed. In line, patients with COL6 mutations, showed increased fibrotic tissue even in subcutaneous fat: about 6.5 times vs controls in the patient with the severe form (Ullrich) and 2.8 times in two patients with the milder form (Bethlem). Approximately 15% of obese adipocytes were dead (perilipin1 negative), and consequent infiltrating macrophages showed hyperexpression of CD38, an ectoenzyme implicated in systemic fibrosis. Correlations with gene expression confirmed the importance also of myofibroblasts and the extracellular matrix peptidase D. All together our data support a role for obese adipocytes in the fibrillar collagen production and evidentiate collagen VI and CD38 as new molecular determinants, reinforcing the idea of a multi-factorial origin of fat fibrosis.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Human patient SFPQ homozygous mutation is found deleterious for brain and motor development in a zebrafish model

SFPQ (Splicing factor proline- and glutamine-rich) is a DNA and RNA binding protein involved in transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, and DNA damage repair and it has been previously implicated in neurodegenerative disorders. A homozygous p.Ser660Asn variant in SFPQ was identified through whole exome sequencing (WES) in an Italian woman presented a complex neurological phenotype with intellectual disability, peripheral neuropathy, bradykinesia, extrapyramidal rigidity and rest (heads) tremor and neuroradiological anomalies including thin dysplastic corpus callosum, hypomyelination and hypointensity of the globus pallidus and of the mesencephalic substantia nigra (resembling neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation; NBIA). Using a zebrafish SFPQ genetic model we have showed that a rescue with this SFPQS660N mutant revealed robust defects in the developing central nervous system (CNS) of the embryos, including abnormal branching of the motor axons innervating body muscles and misfolding of the posterior brain neuroepithelium. The defects hereby identified in the model organism indicate a potential contribution of the homozygous SFPQ p.Ser660Asn variant in some of the patient's neurodegenerative features, including the clinical parkinsonism and the NBIA-like pattern on brain imaging.

neuroscience↗