ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indeed grateful to all the people who have helped me in this work, starting with professor Arianna Menciassi for her help and support during the phases of elaboration and coordination of this work. She introduced me to the other supervisors whom I have learned to regard with great esteem because of their great human and cultural value. I thank Virginia, for the great amount of time she spent with me at the beginning of this work and for all her suggestions regarding the organization and method in laboratory procedures. I thank Piero who patiently transmitted his experience and knowledge with a touch of amusing and ironic moments and who supported and tolerated me during the final stressful period of the experiments. Thanks to him I have been introduced to Marco. I would like to thank Marco for his wide knowledge, all his helps and suggestions, his meticulous precision and for the possibility he gave me to work at NEST laboratories. Right and proper are also the acknowledgements to Carlo Filippeschi and Francesco Damiani for their technical support and to Aldo Ferrari and Orazio Vittorio for their biological indications. Last, but not least, I would like to thank Doris and Ranjana for their precious language corrections.
Without their help this work would never been possible.