Diabetes and Kidney Disease Laboratory
Phone: 85321739
Honours Project: High fat induced kidney disease versus diabetic nephropathy: pathophysiological mechanisms
It has been controversial if high fat diet alone can initiate and further accelerate kidney disease. There appear to be differences and similarities to diabetic nephropathy. We will explore in detail the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to both types of kidney diseases including novel stat of the art technologies such as proteomics and genomics. Furthermore, specific cells taken from those kidneys will be examined in vitro and signalling pathways will be assessed. Intervention studies will also be performed in the animals models to delineate the effect of treatment on renal injury.
PhD project: The role of oxidative stress in diabetes associated atherosclerosis
The incidence of diabetes is increasing worldwide. Diabetes is associated with a range of micro-and macrovascular complications including kidney disease, eye disease and heart disease. Indeed diabetic patients have a much higher cardiovascular risk than patients without diabetes. The mechanisms that drive this acceleration in macrovascular disease in diabetes are still not completely understood. There is increasing evidence that the generation of superoxide and other markers of oxidative stress in the vascular wall are increased in diabetes and paly a pivotal role in the development of plaques and atherosclerosis.
This project will analyse the role of increased oxidative stress, reduced oxidative defence and the effects on plaque development and composition in diabetes associated atherosclerosis. The studies involve novel pharmacological inhibitors of oxidative stress compared to more established antioxidants such as apocynin and also novel knockout mice that have specific enzymes deleted involved in the generation of superoxide.
The animal studies will be complemented by in vitro studies in cells obtained form the diabetic animals, but also cell lines to investigate the signalling mechanism involved in these processes.
The project will train the student in various techniques including animal studies in diabetic animals, assessment of plaque area and composition, immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, western blot, genotyping, as well as confocal microscopy, in vitro cell culture experiments, and vascular reactivity studies.
If these studies can show that specific NOX isoforms are particularly important in diabetes associated macrovascular disease, novel treatments and pharmacological inhibitors may be developed to specifically interrupt the deleterious pathways leading to the acceleration of macrovacsular disease in diabetes.
