Understanding how the vascular system maintains homeostatic function is a
research theme common to the members of the cardiovascular research group. This
interdisciplinary research focus group examines cardiovascular function from a
variety of different prospectives.
Studies in the laboratory of Dr. John Povlishock, conducted in collaboration
with Dr. Hermes Kontos and Dr. Enoch Wei, focus on those vascular abnormalities
which follow traumatic brain injury or ischemic insult. These studies consider
the potential for injury induced alterations of the blood-brain barrier, while
also evaluating parallel changes in cerebral vascular dysfunction to normal
physiological stimuli. In these studies, Dr. Povlishock and his colleagues couple
contemporary, physiological, morphological and cellular approaches to assess
changes in the vascular endothelium and related smooth muscle that translate into
impaired vascular function. Particular emphasis has been focused on
endothelial-dependent processes and the role of damaging oxygen radicals. The
goals of these studies is better understand the pathobiology associated with
these vascular abnormalities and devise more rational therapeutic approaches to
blunt these abnormal vascular responses.
Dr. Milton Sholley is interested in examining the consequences of ischemia and
reperfusion injury on microvascular function and permeability. The laboratory
uses a human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) culture system to model how
the inflammatory response impacts the endothelium. Research has concentrated on
examining the molecular consequences of oxidative injury. This type of insult
compromises the selective permeability of the microvascular system and, at a
specific threshold of injury, initiates the death cascade and the onset of
apoptosis. Preconditioning endothelial cells to express the 72 kDa heat shock
protein prior to an oxidative insult provides a measure of protection. The
laboratory is interested in examining how homeobox (HOX) gene products might
mediate the protective effects of preconditioning. HOX family members also may
play a critical role in regulating some of the more downstream events initiated
by inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress in the endothelium. The clinical
application of this research may lead to new strategies designed to reduce
artheroscrotic plaque formation and the progression of coronary artery disease.
Dr. David Simpson studies how mechanical events regulate form and function in the
cardiovascular system. This laboratory uses the cultured cardiac myocyte to study
how physical ques in the environment and soluble signal molecules that originate
in the interstitial cell and vascular compartments of the heart regulate cardiac
cell shape, contractile protein gene expression and myofibrillar protein content.
In concert with this research the laboratory has an ongoing collaboration with
Dr. Gary Bowlin (VCU Biomedical Engineering) in a project designed to fabricate a
striated muscle prosthesis. Dr. Bowlin's laboratory has extensive expertise in
the fabrication of engineered arterial segments. The Simpson and Bowlin
laboratories are actively collaborating to incorporate a functional microvascular
circulatory system within a striated muscle prosthesis that they have developed
for the reconstruction of a dysfunctional or missing domains of muscle tissue.
