Diseases Commons^™

In Silico Integrative Analysis Of Multi-Omics Reveals Regulatory Layers For Diurnal Gene Expression In Mouse Liver, Chunjie Jiang, Panpan Liu, Cam Mong La, Dongyin Guan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Diurnal oscillation persists throughout the body and plays an essential role in maintaining physiological homeostasis. Disruption of diurnal rhythm contributes to many diseases including type 2 diabetes. The regulatory mechanism of the transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL) of core clock genes is well-established, while a systematic study across all regulatory layers of gene expression, including gene transcription, RNA translation, and DNA binding protein (DBP) activities, is still lacking. We comprehensively bioinformatics analyzed the rhythmicity of gene transcription, mature RNA abundance, protein abundance and DBP activity using publicly available omic-datasets from mouse livers. We found that the core clock genes,

A Novel Model Of Gestational Diabetes: Acute High Fat High Sugar Diet Results In Insulin Resistance And Beta Cell Dysfunction During Pregnancy In Mice, Akansha Mishra, Simone Hernandez Ruano, Pradip K Saha, Kathleen A Pennington

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects 7–18% of all pregnancies. Despite its high prevalence, there is no widely accepted animal model. To address this, we recently developed a mouse model of GDM. The goal of this work was to further characterize this animal model by assessing insulin resistance and beta cell function. Mice were randomly assigned to either control (CD) or high fat, high sugar (HFHS) diet and mated 1 week later. At day 0 (day of mating) mice were fasted and intraperitoneal insulin tolerance tests (ipITT) were performed. Mice were then euthanized and pancreata were collected for histological analysis. Euglycemic …

Esophageal Perforation Successfully Treated With Evt, Kavea Panneerselvam, Ronald Samuel, Robert J Sealock

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Esophageal perforation is rare and carries high morbidity and mortality. A high degree of suspicion is needed for timely diagnosis and treatment. A 54-year-old man presented with fever and confusion. Imaging revealed air in the hepatic inferior vena cava and concern for a fistula between the distal esophagus and the inferior vena cava. An upper endoscopic evaluation revealed a dental floss pick penetrating the distal esophagus. The foreign body was removed, and endoluminal vacuum therapy was used to close the perforation. Endoluminal vacuum therapy is an emerging therapy to treat full-thickness gastrointestinal injuries.

Widening Health Disparities: Increasing Cholangiocarcinoma Incidence In An Underserved Population, Disha Kumar, Varun Bansal, Syed A Raza, Aaron P Thrift, Hoda M Malaty, Robert J Sealock

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cholangiocarcinoma is a relatively rare malignancy with high mortality. In the U.S., incidence rates of cholangiocarcinoma have increased, particularly affecting younger age groups and Hispanic and Asian individuals. We investigated the incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in a largely under-represented, minority population.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study from 2005 to 2017 among adults in a county-funded healthcare system in Harris County, Texas. Incidence rate ratios were computed to compare age-standardized rates using U.S. standard population between 2 time periods: 2005-2011 and 2012-2017.

RESULTS: We identified 139 cholangiocarcinoma cases (64% intrahepatic, 36% extrahepatic). The median age at diagnosis …

Mental Health And Access To Medical Care In Patients With Chronic Cardiovascular Conditions: An Analysis Of The Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, Riyad Y Kherallah, Mahmoud Al Rifai, Jing Liu, Sina Kianoush, Arunima Misra, Salim S Virani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Poor mental health is associated with worse outcomes for chronic diseases. It is unclear whether mental illness predisposes to difficulties with healthcare access.

METHODS: Using a combined dataset of the 2016-2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, this study focused on individuals who reported a chronic cardiovascular condition. Weighted multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between domains of mental health and measures of healthcare access including delaying medical care, more than one year since last routine checkup, lack of a primary care physician, and cost-related medication nonadherence.

RESULTS: Among 1,747,397 participants, 27% had a chronic cardiovascular …

Endpoints In Heart Failure Drug Development, Aliza Hussain, Arunima Misra, Biykem Bozkurt

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Heart failure (HF) is a major health problem worldwide. The development of effective drug and/or device therapy is crucial to mitigate the significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs associated with HF. The choice of endpoint in clinical trials has important practical and clinical implications. Outcomes of interest including mortality and HF hospitalisations provide robust evidence for regulatory approval granted there is sufficiency of safety data. At the same time, it is important to recognise that HF patients experience significant impairments in functional capacity and quality of life, underscoring the need to incorporate parameters of symptoms and patient-reported outcomes in clinical …

Management Of A Novel Autoimmune Disease, Copa Syndrome, In Pregnancy, Archana Ayyar, Rachel D Seaman, Kalpalatha Guntupalli, Mary C Tolcher

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: COPA syndrome is a rare autoimmune disease, demonstrating an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern with variable penetration that occurs more frequently in females than males. This disease manifests in childhood as pulmonary hemorrhage, arthritis, and renal disease.

CASE: We present a case of obstetric management of a 20-year-old nulligravida patient with a diagnosis of COPA syndrome. Her case was further complicated by multiple antepartum admissions for hypoxemia and a complex psychosocial history of substance use. On her first antepartum admission, rheumatology recommended management with hydroxychloroquine, inhaled corticosteroids (budesonide), and bronchodilators (albuterol inhaler) as needed. On admission for induction of labor, …

Meta-Analysis Comparing Outcomes Of High-Power Short-Duration And Low-Power Long-Duration Radiofrequency Ablation For Atrial Fibrillation, Dibbendhu Khanra, Abdul Hamid, Saurabh Deshpande, Anindya Mukherjee, Sanjiv Petkar, Mohammad Saeed, Indranill Basu-Ray

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: High power short duration (HPSD) ablation strategy is proposed to be more effective than low power long duration (LPLD) for radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation. Although small trials abound, data from a large cohort are lacking. This meta-analysis compares all the existing studies comparing these two approaches to evaluate perceived advantages of one over the other.

METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases identified studies comparing HPSD to LPLD ablation. All the analyses used the random-effects model.

RESULTS: Ablation settings varied widely across 20 studies comprising 2,136 patients who underwent HPSD and 1,753 patients who underwent …

Stat6 Suppression Prevents Bleomycin-Induced Dermal Fibrosis, Hua Sun, Ashish Damania, Megan L Mair, Eniola Otukoya, Yi-Dong Li, Katherine Polsky, Yuying Zeng, Jeremiah A Alt, Martin J Citardi, David B Corry, Amber U Luong, John Morgan Knight

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Unified airway disease, including concurrent asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), is a common, but poorly understood disorder with no curative treatment options. To establish a murine model of chronic unified eosinophilic airway inflammation, mice were challenged with Aspergillus niger, and sinonasal mucosa and lung tissue were evaluated by immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and gene expression. Inhalation of A niger conidia resulted in a Th2-biased lung and sinus inflammation that typifies allergic asthma and CRS. Gene network and pathway analysis correlated with human disease with upregulation of not only the JAK-STAT and helper T-cell pathways, but also less expected pathways governing …

Gut Microbiota From Sjögren Syndrome Patients Causes Decreased T Regulatory Cells In The Lymphoid Organs And Desiccation-Induced Corneal Barrier Disruption In Mice, Laura Schaefer, Claudia M Trujillo-Vargas, Firas S Midani, Stephen C Pflugfelder, Robert A Britton, Cintia S De Paiva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Sjögren syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder characterized by secretory dysfunction in the eye and mouth; in the eye, this results in tear film instability, reduced tear production, and corneal barrier disruption. A growing number of studies show that homeostasis of the ocular surface is impacted by the intestinal microbiome, and several 16S sequencing studies have demonstrated dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota in SS patients. In this study, we utilized metagenomic sequencing to perform a deeper analysis of the intestinal microbiome using stools collected from sex- and age-matched healthy (n = 20), dry eye (n = 4) …

Clonal Hematopoiesis Analyses In Clinical, Epidemiologic, And Genetic Aging Studies To Unravel Underlying Mechanisms Of Age-Related Dysfunction In Humans, Kenneth Walsh, Nalini Raghavachari, Candace Kerr, Alexander G Bick, Steven R Cummings, Todd Druley, Cynthia E Dunbar, Giulio Genovese, Margaret A Goodell, Siddhartha Jaiswal, Jaroslaw Maciejewski, Pradeep Natarajan, Anastasia V Shindyapina, Alan R Shuldiner, Erik B Van Den Akker, Jan Vijg

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aging is characterized by increased mortality, functional decline, and exponential increases in the incidence of diseases such as cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, respiratory disease, etc. Though the role of aging in these diseases is widely accepted and considered to be a common denominator, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. A significant age-related feature observed in many population cohorts is somatic mosaicism, the detectable accumulation of somatic mutations in multiple cell types and tissues, particularly those with high rates of cell turnover (e.g., skin, liver, and hematopoietic cells). Somatic mosaicism can lead to the development of cellular clones that …

Targeting The Pro-Survival Protein Bcl-2 To Prevent Breast Cancer, Adelaide Young, Wen Bu, Weiyu Jiang, Amy Ku, Jyoti Kapali, Sagar Dhamne, Lan Qin, Susan G Hilsenbeck, Yi-Chieh Nancy Du, Yi Li

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Current chemopreventive strategies require 3-5 years of continuous treatment and have the concerns of significant side effects; therefore, new chemopreventive agents that require shorter and safer treatments are urgently needed. In this study, we developed a new murine model of breast cancer that mimics human breast cancer initiation and is ideal for testing the efficacy of chemopreventive therapeutics. In this model, introduction of lentivirus carrying a PIK3CA gene mutant commonly found in breast cancers infects a small number of the mammary cells, leading to atypia first and then to ductal carcinomas that are positive for both estrogen receptor and progesterone …

"It Just Kind Of Feels Like A Different World Now:" Stress And Resilience For Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes In The Era Of Covid-19, Maeve B O'Donnell, Marisa E Hilliard, Viena T Cao, Miranda C Bradford, Krysta S Barton, Samantha Hurtado, Brenda Duran, Samantha Garcia Perez, Kiswa S Rahman, Samantha Scott, Faisal S Malik, Daniel J Desalvo, Catherine Pihoker, Chuan Zhou, Abby R Rosenberg, Joyce P Yi-Frazier

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major stressor for adolescents. Given the unique implications of the pandemic for youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D), who already navigate multiple stressors as a function of their chronic condition, we aimed to describe the impact of the pandemic on adolescents with T1D and describe their coping strategies and resilience resources.

RESEARCH METHOD: In a 2-site (Seattle WA, Houston TX) clinical trial of a psychosocial intervention targeting stress/resilience, adolescents 13-18 years old with T1D ≥ 1 year and elevated diabetes distress were enrolled August 2020 - June 2021. Participants completed a baseline survey …

Adrenomedullin And Its Receptors Are Expressed In Mouse Pancreatic Β-Cells And Suppresses Insulin Synthesis And Secretion, Yuanlin Dong, Simone Hernandez Ruano, Akansha Mishra, Kathleen A Pennington, Chandrasekhar Yallampalli

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with defective pancreatic β-cell adaptation in pregnancy, but the underlying mechanism remains obscure. Our previous studies demonstrated that GDM women display increased plasma adrenomedullin (ADM) levels, and non-obese GDM mice show decreased serum concentrations of insulin and the number of β-cells in pancreas islets. The aims of this study is to examine if ADM and its receptors are expressed in female mouse pancreas, and if so, whether insulin secretion is regulated by ADM in mouse β-cell line, NIT-1 cells and isolated mouse pancreatic islets. Present study shows that ADM and its receptor components CRLR, …

Retrobulbar Hematoma In A Patient With Thyroid Eye Disease, Christina Y Weng

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A 37-year-old female with a history of thyroid eye disease presented after trauma to the right side of her face. Visual acuity was light perception and a relative afferent pupillary defect was detected. There was gross proptosis of the unruptured right globe with diffuse conjunctival hemorrhage. Computed tomography revealed an intraconal retrobulbar hematoma (RBH) with anterior herniation of the globe. The extraocular muscles were thickened, consistent with her thyroid eye disease, and her superior rectus was avulsed. The optic nerve was on stretch, but there was no evidence of transection. The patient ultimately underwent enucleation with the plan for an …

Spatial Transcriptomics Of The Lacrimal Gland Features Macrophage Activity And Epithelium Metabolism As Key Alterations During Chronic Inflammation, Olivier Mauduit, Vanessa Delcroix, Takeshi Umazume, Cintia S De Paiva, Darlene A Dartt, Helen P Makarenkova

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The lacrimal gland (LG) is an exocrine gland that produces the watery part of the tear film that lubricates the ocular surface. Chronic inflammation, such as Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), is one of the leading causes of aqueous-deficiency dry eye (ADDE) disease worldwide. In this study we analyzed the chronic inflammation in the LGs of the NOD.B10Sn-H2b/J (NOD.H-2b) mice, a mouse model of SS, utilizing bulk RNAseq and Visium spatial gene expression. With Seurat we performed unsupervised clustering and analyzed the spatial cell distribution and gene expression changes in all cell clusters within the LG sections. Moreover, for the …

Subjective Versus Objective Tests Of Dizziness And Vestibular Function In Epidemiologic Screening Research, Helen S Cohen, Haleh Sangi-Haghpeykar, Michael W Plankey

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Many epidemiologic studies of vestibular disorders are based on responses to questionnaires which have not been tested against objective tests of the vestibular system.

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to determine if the dizziness and balance questions used in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) are valid and predict performance on objective tests of the vestibular system (VNG).

METHODS: Data from 367 participants recruited from the community, aged 21.4 to 87.6 years, were collected in the Otolaryngology department at a tertiary care center. They were asked the eight NHIS questions twice, at least 30 minutes apart and were tested on …

Comprehensive Improvement Of Cardiology Inpatient Transfers: A Bed-Availability Triggered Approach, Judson A Moore, Lindsay F Eilers, Amanda J Willis, Michael D Chance, Julie A La Salle, Ellen H Delgado, Katie M Bien, Jordana R Goldman, Shreya S Sheth

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Patient transfers pose a potential risk during hospitalizations. Structured communication practices are necessary to ensure effective handoffs, but occur amidst competing priorities and constraints. We sought to design and implement a multidisciplinary process to enhance communication between pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit and cardiology floor teams with a comprehensive approach evaluating efficiency, safety, and culture.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective quality improvement study to enact a bed-availability triggered bedside handoff process. The primary aim was to reduce the time between handoff and unit transfer. Secondary metrics captured the impact on safety (reported safety events, overnight transfers, bounce backs, and …

Evaluation Of Cervical Spine Pathology In Children With Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, Marc Andrew Prablek, Melissa Lopresti, Brandon Bertot, Shaine Alaine Morris, David Bauer, Sandi Lam, Vijay Ravindra

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a genetic connective tissue disorder associated with multiple musculoskeletal anomalies, including cervical spine instability. We sought to examine the nature of imaging for cervical spine instability in children with LDS due to likely pathogenic or pathogenic variants in

METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted, examining relevant data for all children with LDS screened at our institution from 2004 through 2021. Cervical spine X-rays were used to assess cervical instability, cervical lordosis, and basilar impression.

RESULTS: A total of 39 patients were identified; 16 underwent cervical spine screening (56.25% male). Median age at initial screening …

The Autophagic Protein P62 Is A Target Of Reactive Aldehydes In Human And Murine Cholestatic Liver Disease, Colin T Shearn, Aimee L Anderson, Michael W Devereux, David J Orlicky, Cole Michel, Dennis R Petersen, Colin G Miller, Sanjiv Harpavat, Edward E Schmidt, Ronald J Sokol

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Inflammatory cholestatic liver diseases, including Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), are characterized by periportal inflammation with progression to cirrhosis. The objective of this study was to examine interactions between oxidative stress and autophagy in cholestasis. Using hepatic tissue from male acute cholestatic (bile duct ligated) as well as chronic cholestatic (Mdr2KO) mice, localization of oxidative stress, the antioxidant response and induction of autophagy were analyzed and compared to human PSC liver. Concurrently, the ability of reactive aldehydes to post-translationally modify the autophagosome marker p62 was assessed in PSC liver tissue and in cell culture. Expression of autophagy markers was upregulated in …

Pathologic Inflammation In Malnutrition Is Driven By Proinflammatory Intestinal Microbiota, Large Intestine Barrier Dysfunction, And Translocation Of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide, Grace T Patterson, Elvia Y Osorio, Alex Peniche, Sara M Dann, Erika Cordova, Geoffrey A Preidis, Ji Ho Suh, Ichiaki Ito, Omar A Saldarriaga, Michael Loeffelholz, Nadim J Ajami, Bruno L Travi, Peter C Melby

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Acute malnutrition, or wasting, is implicated in over half of all deaths in children under five and increases risk of infectious disease. Studies in humans and preclinical models have demonstrated that malnutrition is linked to an immature intestinal microbiota characterized by increased prevalence of Enterobacteriaceae. Observational studies in children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) have also observed heightened systemic inflammation and increased circulating bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS; endotoxin). However, the mechanisms that underpin the systemic inflammatory state and endotoxemia, and their pathophysiological consequences, remain uncertain. Understanding these pathophysiological mechanisms is necessary to design targeted treatments that will improve the unacceptable rate …

A Survey On Self-Medication For The Prevention Or Treatment Of Covid-19 And Distrust In Healthcare Of Veterans In A Primary Care Setting In The United States, Eva Amenta, Larissa Grigoryan, Laura Dillon, Casey Hines-Munson, John Van, Barbara Trautner

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic brought the public overwhelming and conflicting information. Rates of trust in healthcare professionals have been declining among laypersons over the past five decades. In this setting, we sought to evaluate the use of medications, both with or without a prescription, to prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 as well as trust in healthcare among patients in a primary care clinic.

DESIGN: We surveyed 150 veterans in primary care clinic waiting rooms at a large southwestern tertiary care Veterans Affairs hospital. This survey was performed in March-November 2021.

METHODS: The survey asked about respondents' demographics, use of medications, …

The Transcriptomic Portrait Of Locally Advanced Breast Cancer And Its Prognostic Value In A Multi-Country Cohort Of Latin American Patients, Andrea Sabina Llera, Eliana Saul Furquim Werneck Abdelhay, Nora Artagaveytia, Adrián Daneri-Navarro, Bettina Müller, Carlos Velazquez, Elsa B Alcoba, Isabel Alonso, Daniela B Alves Da Quinta, Renata Binato, Alicia Inés Bravo, Natalia Camejo, Dirce Maria Carraro, Mónica Castro, Juan M Castro-Cervantes, Sandra Cataldi, Alfonso Cayota, Mauricio Cerda, Alicia Colombo, Susanne Crocamo, Alicia Del Toro-Arreola, Raúl Delgadillo-Cisterna, Lucía Delgado, Marisa Dreyer-Breitenbach, Laura Fejerman, Elmer A Fernández, Jorge Fernández, Wanda Fernández, Ramón A Franco-Topete, Carolina Gabay, Fancy Gaete, Adriana Garibay-Escobar, Jorge Gómez, Gonzalo Greif, Thomas G Gross, Marisol Guerrero, Marianne K Henderson, Miguel E Lopez-Muñoz, Alejandra Lopez-Vazquez, Silvina Maldonado, Andrés J Morán-Mendoza, Maria Aparecida Nagai, Antonio Oceguera-Villanueva, Miguel A Ortiz-Martínez, Jael Quintero, Antonio Quintero-Ramos, Rui M Reis, Javier Retamales, Ernesto Rivera-Claisse, Darío Rocha, Robinson Rodríguez, Cristina Rosales, Efrain Salas-González, Verónica Sanchotena, Laura Segovia, Juan Martín Sendoya, Aida A Silva-García, Alejandra Trinchero, Olivia Valenzuela, Vidya Vedham, Livia Zagame, United States-Latin American Cancer Research Network (Us-Lacrn);, Osvaldo L Podhajcer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSES: Most molecular-based published studies on breast cancer do not adequately represent the unique and diverse genetic admixture of the Latin American population. Searching for similarities and differences in molecular pathways associated with these tumors and evaluating its impact on prognosis may help to select better therapeutic approaches.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We collected clinical, pathological, and transcriptomic data of a multi-country Latin American cohort of 1,071 stage II-III breast cancer patients of the Molecular Profile of Breast Cancer Study (MPBCS) cohort. The 5-year prognostic ability of intrinsic (transcriptomic-based) PAM50 and immunohistochemical classifications, both at the cancer-specific (OSC) and disease-free survival …

Management Of Perioperative Anticoagulation In A Patient With Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: A Case Report, Sanjana A Malviya, Yi Deng, Sayyed O Gilani, Alec A Hendon, Melissa A Nikolaidis, Micah S Moseley

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patients with Antiphospholipid syndrome (APLS) are at high risk for both bleeding and thrombotic complications during cardiac surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In this case we present a patient with APLS and Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura who successfully underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR) with CPB despite recent craniotomy for subdural hematoma evacuation. Anticoagulation for CPB was monitored by targeting an Activated Clotting Time (ACT) that was 2× the upper limit of normal. A multidisciplinary approach was essential in ensuring a safe and successful operation.

Hepatic Pparα Is Destabilized By Sirt1 Deacetylase In Undernourished Male Mice, Ji Ho Suh, Kang Ho Kim, Margaret E Conner, David D Moore, Geoffrey A Preidis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The nutrient sensing nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) regulates the host response to short-term fasting by inducing hepatic transcriptional programming of ketogenesis, fatty acid oxidation and transport, and autophagy. This adaptation is ineffective in chronically undernourished individuals, among whom dyslipidemia and hepatic steatosis are common. We recently reported that hepatic PPARα protein is profoundly depleted in male mice undernourished by a low-protein, low-fat diet. Here, we identify PPARα as a deacetylation target of the NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) and link this to the decrease in PPARα protein levels in undernourished liver. Livers from undernourished male mice expressed high levels …

Clinical Outcome And Gut Development After Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Supplementation To Preterm Pigs, Kristine Holgersen, Martin Bo Rasmussen, Galen Carey, Douglas G Burrin, Thomas Thymann, Per Torp Sangild

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Elevation of circulating insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) within normal physiological levels may alleviate several morbidities in preterm infants but safety and efficacy remain unclear. We hypothesized that IGF-1 supplementation during the first 1-2 weeks after preterm birth improves clinical outcomes and gut development, using preterm pigs as a model for infants.

METHODS: Preterm pigs were given vehicle or recombinant human IGF-1/binding protein-3 (rhIGF-1, 2.25 mg/kg/d) by subcutaneous injections for 8 days (Experiment 1, n = 34), or by systemic infusion for 4 days (Experiment 2, n = 19), before collection of blood and organs for analyses.

RESULTS: In both …

The Texas Collaborative Center For Hepatocellular Cancer: Reducing Liver Cancer Mortality In Texas Through Coordination, Collaboration And Advocacy, Ariel C Harrison, Fasiha Kanwal, Sumeet K Asrani, Aaron P Thrift, Chris I Amos, Maria L Jibaja-Weiss, Jane R Montealegre, Jessica P Hwang, Amit G Singal, Hashem B El-Serag

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Texas has the highest age-adjusted incidence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the United States. To address cancer prevention and early detection through research, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has funded the Texas Collaborative Center for Hepatocellular Cancer (TeCH) to facilitate liver cancer research, education and advocacy activities. This paper describes the organizational structure, program measures, the actions completed and future plans of TeCH. This center is comprised of several cores and committees including the Administrative Core, Steering Committee, Data and Biospecimen Core, Scientific Committee, Clinical Network Committee, and the Community Outreach Committee. Each core and committee …

De Novo Glycine Synthesis Is Reduced In Adults With Morbid Obesity And Increases Following Bariatric Surgery, Hong Chang Tan, Jean W Hsu, E Shyong Tai, Shaji Chacko, Vieon Wu, Chun Fan Lee, Jean-Paul Kovalik, Farook Jahoor

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Glycine is a dietary non-essential amino acid that is low in obesity and increases following bariatric surgery. However, the exact mechanism responsible remains unclear and it is unknown whether hypoglycinemia is a cause or consequence of insulin resistance.

OBJECTIVE: Using multiple isotopically labeled tracers, we aimed to determine the underlying kinetic changes responsible for hypoglycinemia in obesity by: 1) Comparing glycine kinetics between participants with morbid obesity (BMI ≥ 32.5 kg/m

METHODS: [1,2-

RESULTS: Compared to controls, participants with morbid obesity had significantly lower plasma glycine concentrations at 163 (153-171) vs. 201 (172-227) µmol/L and significantly reduced

CONCLUSION: Hypoglycinemia …

Metastatic Insulinoma Presenting With Postprandial Hypoglycemia, Monique Debrah Maher, Dimpi Nitin Desai, Mandeep Bajaj

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Patients with an insulinoma, a type of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, typically present with fasting hypoglycemia but can rarely present exclusively with postprandial hypoglycemia.

CASE REPORT: A 69-year-old man presented with episodes of postprandial blurry vision, sweating, and confusion for the last 2 years that were becoming more frequent over the last several weeks. Home blood glucose measurements revealed postprandial hypoglycemia (glucose level, 45-70 mg/dL), and symptoms were consistent with the Whipple triad. Continuous glucose monitoring revealed only postprandial hypoglycemia within 2 hours following meals. An outpatient fast was conducted with detectable insulin (6 μIU/mL) and C-peptide (2.0 ng/mL) levels …

Rev-Erb Is Essential In Cardiac Fibroblasts Homeostasis, Xiaokang Luo, Shiyang Song, Lei Qi, Chih-Liang Tien, Hui Li, Weiyi Xu, Theodore Lemuel Mathuram, Thomas Burris, Yuanbiao Zhao, Zheng Sun, Lilei Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

REV-ERB agonists have shown antifibrotic effects in the heart and other organs. The function of REV-ERB in the cardiac fibroblasts remains unstudied. Here, we characterize the functional difference of REV-ERB in mouse embryonic fibroblasts and cardiac fibroblasts using genetic deletion of REV-ERBα and ß in vitro. We show that REV-ERB α/β double deleted cardiac fibroblasts have reduced viability and proliferation, but increased migration and myofibroblasts activation. Thus, REV-ERB α/β has essential cell-autonomous role in cardiac fibroblasts in maintaining them in a healthy, quiescent state. We also show that existing REV-ERB agonist SR9009 strongly suppresses cardiac fibroblasts activation but in …