FRASSONI , Francesco

Aging is a physiological process in which multifactorial processes determine a progressive decline. Several alterations contribute to the aging process, including telomere shortening, oxidative stress, deregulated autophagy and epigenetic modifications. In some cases, these alterations are so linked with the aging process that it is possible...

In human natural killer (NK) cells, human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has been shown to be a driving force capable of inducing the expansion of a highly differentiated NKG2C+CD57+subset, persisting over time in both HCMV+healthy subjects and umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) recipients experiencing HCMV viral reactivation. In HCMV+healthy...

We evaluated the energy metabolism of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) isolated from umbilical cord (UC) of preterm (< 37 weeks of gestational age) and term (>= 37 weeks of gestational age) newborns, using MSC from adult bone marrow as control. A metabolic switch has been observed around the 34th week of gestational age from a prevalently...

Cord blood contains high number of hematopoietic cells that after birth disappear. In this paper we have studied the functional properties of the umbilical cord blood progenitor cells collected from term and preterm neonates to establish whether quantitative and/or qualitative differences exist between the two groups.

Patients treated with low-dose anthracyclines often show late onset cardiotoxicity. Recent studies suggest that this form of cardiotoxicity is the result of a progenitor cell disease. In this study we demonstrate that Cord Blood Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) exposed to low, sub-apoptotic doses of doxorubicin show a senescence phenotype...

During the phase of proliferation needed for hematopoietic reconstitution following transplantation, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) must express genes involved in stem cell self-renewal. We investigated the expression of genes relevant for self-renewal and expansion of HSPC (operationally defined as CD34+ cells) in steady state and...

Exosomes are secreted nanovesicles that are able to transfer RNA and proteins to target cells. The emerging role ofmesenchymal stemcell (MSC) exosomes as promoters of aerobic ATP synthesis restoration in damaged cells, prompted us to assess whether they contain an extramitochondrial aerobic respiration capacity. Exosomes were isolated from...

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are hematological malignancies characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis and increased apoptosis in the bone marrow, which cause peripheral cytopenia. Mitochondria are key regulators of apoptosis and a site of iron accumulation that favors reactive oxygen species (ROS) production with detrimental effects on cell...