Responsible: Prof. Lorenzo FUMAGALLI

FACULTY

Prof. Lorenzo FUMAGALLI (Professor)
Prof. Elena POMPILI (Associate Professor)
Dr. Elena DE SANTIS (Associate Professor)
Dr. Cinzia FABRIZI (Assistant Professor)
Dr. Paolo SAGNELLI (Assistant Professor)

PhD STUDENTS 

Dr. Viviana CIRACI

GRANT SUPPORTED STUDENTS

Marco GUERRIERA
Pancrazio LEZZI

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

Prof. Fumagalli’s research activity in the laboratory of Experimental Morphology has been focused for several years on the structural and ultrastuctural analysis of the nervous system during neurodegenerative diseases. The main research projects are briefly described below:

• Analysis of the mechanisms underlying the toxicity of environmental contaminants such as lead and trimethyltin which determine in vivo loss of specific neuronal populations and extensive gliosis. In particular, we analyze the activation and regulation of the autophagic pathway in  intoxicated cell cultures of neuronal or glial cells. Autophagy is a degradation pathway observed in different stress conditions such as starvation generally improving cell survival.

• Study of the protease activated receptors (in particular PAR-1) as regulators of the inflammatory response of glial cells. PARs are sensors of extracellular proteases released at sites of injury which can modulate the release of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines by glial cells thus contributing to the regulation of the local inflammatory reaction. Besides, our more recent data show that the activation of these receptors modify the secretion of glial factors which affect neuronal survival and neurite outgrowth.

• Microglia are macrophages within the central nervous system playing a central role in neurodegenerative disorders. We analyse in particular their chronic activation by amyloid peptides which contributes to dismantle neuronal activity and to induce neuronal loss.

INSTRUMENTATION: Fully equipped cell culture lab (CO2 incubator, laminar flow hood, liquid nitrogen storage, centrifuges, inverted microscope); fluorescence microscope Nikon E600; Gel Doc 2000 Bio-Rad; spectrophotometer; ELISA plate reader.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIONS

Dipartimento di Ricerca Traslazionale e delle Nuove Tecnologie in Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Pisa (Proff. F Fornai e P Lenzi)
Departamento de Morfología y Biología Celular de la Universidad de Oviedo, Spagna(Prof. JA Vega)
Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università di Padova (Proff. P Parnigotto, MT Conconi e R Di Liddo)
Dipartimento di Scienze Biochimiche, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma (Proff. B Maras e ME Schininà)
Scuola di Scienze del Farmaco e dei Prodotti della Salute, Università di Camerino (Prof. F. Mignini)
Dipartimento di Fisiologia e Farmacologia “Vittorio Erspamer”, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma (Prof. L Steardo)
Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e Medicina di Comunità, Università di Verona (Prof. G Fumagalli)
Dipartimento Organi di Senso, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma (Prof. M Artico)
Dipartimento di Anatomia Umana e Biologia Cellulare, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Roma (Prof. F. Michetti)