Red blood cell membrane composition following diet manipulation in the cow

Biological membranes are viscous solutions of proteins dispersed in a fluid lipid matrix. Membranes act as a barrier regulating molecule and information flows and maintaining differences between inside and outside of the cells and/or intercellular compartments. In this paper erythrocyte membrane lipid composition of cows has been analyzed as a function of diet treatments finalized to improve production and quality of milk. The fat supplemented diets were characterized by a lower level of lipid unsaturation than the control diets and the experimental results show that some membrane functions can be influenced by the diet as indicated by the different membrane composition (proteins, phospholipids, glycolipids, phospholipids and glycolipids molecular species) we found. These conclusions can be drawn also taking into account the strong dependence of blood metabolites on lactation period and other parameters. All together the results here reported indicate that diet manipulation can act usefully on the production and fat content of the milk but can also modify some important physiological compartments.