Cardiovascular Control

Overview

Primary hypertension is a worldwide epidemic. With an inability to restore normal blood pressure in ~50% of patients, we seek novel targets in central neuronal circuits regulating arterial pressure. We have identified brainstem endothelium as a cell type affecting both the set point and baroreflex control of arterial pressure. Using viral vector technology, we are manipulating genes within phenotypically defined cell types (endothelium and neurone types) to either express or block proteins affecting neurotransmission while recording arterial pressure using radio-telemetry. We are currently screening for differentially expressed genes localized to specific brain regions controlling blood pressure between normotensive and hypertensive models.

We address a wide range of questions related to hypertension by methods including gene profiling, viral gene transfer, patch clamp recordings, confocal imaging and test our predictions by gene manipulations in whole animal experiments using the state of art radio-telemetry approach. This is what the “physiological genomics” is all about.