Research on inflammation and basophil biology
Main research topic of Salvatore Chirumbolo deals with human leukocytes, mostly basophils. From 1991 to 1995 he was awarded of 4 Grants for two different Research Fellowships to study the in vitro pharmacology of human leukocytes undergoing activation with either therapeutical drugs or soluble agonists, both able to elicit a complex signaling response. He discovered the phenomenon of the homologous priming in neutrophils with P. Bellavite (Bellavite P, Chirumbolo S, Lippi G, Guzzo P, Santonastaso C. Homologous priming in chemotactic peptide-stimulated neutrophils. Cell Biochem Funct. 1993 Jun;11(2):93-100) and contributed in giving insights about the role of these cells in ex vivo experimental models (Biasi D, Bambara LM, Carletto A, Caraffi M, Serra MC, Chirumbolo S, Bellavite P. Factor-specific changes in oxidative burst response of human neutrophils in skin-window exudates. Inflammation. 1993 Feb;17(1):13-23; Carletto A, Bellavite P, Guarini P, Biasi D, Chirumbolo S, Caramaschi P, Bambara LM, Corrocher R. Changes of fatty acid composition and oxidative metabolism of human neutrophils migrating into an inflammatory exudate. Inflammation. 1996 Apr;20(2):123-37). His scientific contribute, as a laboratorist, allowed to build up many analytical strategies to study leukocytes and also platelets (Bellavite P, Andrioli G, Guzzo P, Arigliano P, Chirumbolo S, Manzato F, Santonastaso C. A colorimetric method for the measurement of platelet adhesion in microtiter plates. Anal Biochem. 1994 Feb 1;216(2):444-50), even in sport medicine (Benoni G, Bellavite P, Adami A, Chirumbolo S, Lippi G, Brocco G, Giulini GM, Cuzzolin L. Changes in several neutrophil functions in basketball players before, during and after the sports season. Int J Sports Med. 1995 Jan;16(1):34-7; Benoni G, Bellavite P, Adami A, Chirumbolo S, Lippi G, Brocco G, Cuzzolin L. Effect of acute exercise on some haematological parameters and neutrophil functions in active and inactive subjects. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1995;70(2):187-91). In clinical biochemistry, Chirumbolo contributed to highlight many mechanisms related to hormesis and intracellular molecular pathways, both in neutrophils (Bellavite P, Chirumbolo S, Mansoldo C, Gandini G, Dri P. Simultaneous assay for oxidative metabolism and adhesion of human neutrophils: evidence for correlations and dissociations of the two responses. J Leukoc Biol. 1992 Apr;51(4):329-35; Bellavite P, Chirumbolo S, Lippi G, Andrioli G, Bonazzi L, Ferro I. Dual effects of formylpeptides on the adhesion of endotoxin-primed human neutrophils. Cell Biochem Funct. 1993 Dec;11(4):231-9) and in basophils (Chirumbolo S, Zanoni G, Ortolani R, Vella A. In vitro Biphasic Effect of Honey Bee Venom on Basophils from Screened Healthy Blood Donors. Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2011 Jan;3(1):58-61).
In the latest years Chirumbolo developed a flow cytometry approach to study basophils in the in vitro methodology known as basophil activation test (BAT). The CD46dim/CD123bright/HLADRnon expr gating strategy, to phenotype basophils from whole blood or leukocyte enriched-buffy coats, was performed successfully for the first time (Chirumbolo S, Vella A, Ortolani R, De Gironcoli M, Solero P, Tridente G, Bellavite P. Differential response of human basophil activation markers: a multi-parameter flow cytometry approach. Clin Mol Allergy. 2008 Oct 16;6:12-24) and it is currently used in several laboratories worldwide. The use of CD63 and CD203c to follow basophil activation let Chirumbolo and his group to discover many effects dealing with allergens and plant polyphenolic compounds (as anti-allergic substances). Optimization of this assay, in order to ameliorate its powerful feasibility as a cellular investigation tool for allergy, has been furtherly made by Chirumbolo and coll (Chirumbolo S. CD164 and other recently discovered activation markers as promising tools for allergy diagnosis: what's new? Clin Exp Med. 2011 Apr, in press; Chirumbolo S, Ortolani R, Vella A. CCR3 as a single selection marker compared to CD123/HLADR to isolate basophils in flow cytometry: some comments. Cytometry A. 2011 Feb;79(2):102-6; Chirumbolo S. The use of IL-3 in basophil activation tests is the real pitfall. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2011 Mar;80(2):137-8, etc..). In 2008 he was awarded for the best poster presentation at the XXV Congress of GIC in the ISAC group. He is a member of the Italian Group for Clinical Cytometry. In this field he contributed also to the evaluation of cord blood, immune complexity (Ortolani R, Bellavite P, Paiola F, Martini M, Marchesini M, Veneri D, Franchini M, Chirumbolo S, Tridente G, Vella A. A comparative method for processing immunological parameters: developing an "Immunogram". Blood Transfus. 2010 Apr;8(2):118-25transfusion medicine (see below) (Chirumbolo S, Ortolani R, Veneri D, Raffaelli R, Peroni D, Pigozzi R, Colombatti M, Vella A. Lymphocyte phenotypic subsets in umbilical cord blood compared to peripheral blood from related mothers. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2011 Jul;80(4):248-53).
In the latest years Chirumbolo developed a flow cytometry approach to study basophils in the in vitro methodology known as basophil activation test (BAT). The CD46dim/CD123bright/HLADRnon expr gating strategy, to phenotype basophils from whole blood or leukocyte enriched-buffy coats, was performed successfully for the first time (Chirumbolo S, Vella A, Ortolani R, De Gironcoli M, Solero P, Tridente G, Bellavite P. Differential response of human basophil activation markers: a multi-parameter flow cytometry approach. Clin Mol Allergy. 2008 Oct 16;6:12-24) and it is currently used in several laboratories worldwide. The use of CD63 and CD203c to follow basophil activation let Chirumbolo and his group to discover many effects dealing with allergens and plant polyphenolic compounds (as anti-allergic substances). Optimization of this assay, in order to ameliorate its powerful feasibility as a cellular investigation tool for allergy, has been furtherly made by Chirumbolo and coll (Chirumbolo S. CD164 and other recently discovered activation markers as promising tools for allergy diagnosis: what's new? Clin Exp Med. 2011 Apr, in press; Chirumbolo S, Ortolani R, Vella A. CCR3 as a single selection marker compared to CD123/HLADR to isolate basophils in flow cytometry: some comments. Cytometry A. 2011 Feb;79(2):102-6; Chirumbolo S. The use of IL-3 in basophil activation tests is the real pitfall. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2011 Mar;80(2):137-8, etc..). In 2008 he was awarded for the best poster presentation at the XXV Congress of GIC in the ISAC group. He is a member of the Italian Group for Clinical Cytometry. In this field he contributed also to the evaluation of cord blood, immune complexity (Ortolani R, Bellavite P, Paiola F, Martini M, Marchesini M, Veneri D, Franchini M, Chirumbolo S, Tridente G, Vella A. A comparative method for processing immunological parameters: developing an "Immunogram". Blood Transfus. 2010 Apr;8(2):118-25transfusion medicine (see below) (Chirumbolo S, Ortolani R, Veneri D, Raffaelli R, Peroni D, Pigozzi R, Colombatti M, Vella A. Lymphocyte phenotypic subsets in umbilical cord blood compared to peripheral blood from related mothers. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2011 Jul;80(4):248-53).