The Red Blood Cell as a Gender-Associated Biomarker in Metabolic Syndrome: A Pilot Study
Figure 2
Morphological analyses of RBCs. (a) Two representative micrographs obtained by light microscopy displaying morphological alteration in RBCs from MetS patients (right panel) with respect to those from healthy donors (left panel). Note the different aggregation features and the presence of surface protrusions (arrows). (b) Morphometric analysis indicating the percentage of altered RBCs in both HD and MetS patients. Data are the mean ± SD of 40 HD (22 male and 18 female) and 56 MetS patients (31 male and 25 female). When morphometric analyses were performed as stated in Methods, a gender difference in terms of morphological alteration was detectable in MetS patients. *P < 0.01, men with MetS versus women with MetS.
