海角社区

The long-term goal of our research program is to elucidate mechanisms of obesity-associated coronary microvascular dysfunction and thereby identify novel pathways and therapeutic targets to reduce cardiovascular complications in these patients. The central premise of our work is that coronary microvascular dysfunction and the resultant impairment of coronary blood flow control is an independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in obese, diabetic patients. Impaired coronary microvascular function is estimated to account for more than 60% of cardiac perfusion defects in patients with type 2 diabetes. Thus, coronary microvascular dysfunction is a significant contributor to impaired cardiac function, ischemia, infarct, and mortality in these patients.

Current projects in the laboratory focus on the role of the aldosterone-binding mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) as a mediator of coronary and cardiac dysfunction in obesity. A growing body of evidence has implicated MR signaling in vascular cells as an important mediator of vascular and cardiac dysfunction in various disease states. Our studies utilize an integrative combination of in vivo and in vitro approaches including cell/tissue culture and clinically relevant mouse models coupled with molecular techniques.

Ongoing studies in Dr. Jackson鈥檚 laboratory seek to understand how arterioles in the microcirculation sense their environment and how changes in the environment alter the contractile function of vascular muscle cells in the walls of these microvessels to lead to changes in blood flow and blood pressure. Using techniques such as intravital videomicroscopy, single cell contraction, immunocytochemistry, single cell quantitative RT-PCR, fluorescence microscopy, calcium imaging, patch clamp recording, pressure myography and conventional microelectrode methods, the Jackson lab seeks to understand the role played by smooth muscle and endothelial cell ion channels in the regulation of calcium signaling and vascular smooth muscle tone in arterioles related to the local regulation of blood flow in the microcirculation, and the impact of aging and disease states, such as hypertension and obesity, on these processes.