Joseph Hill
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
When a heart attack cuts off blood flow, heart muscle is damaged and the heart can weaken into heart failure. The endothelial cells that line blood vessels may help the heart resist this injury by signaling to nearby heart muscle cells and immune cells.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Biology
- Topics
Fli1
endothelial cells
ischemic heart disease
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Determine how endothelial Fli1 protects the heart under ischemic stress, using tamoxifen-inducible mice that lack Fli1 only in blood vessel lining cells, and manipulate Fli1 activity in models of ischemic heart disease.
- Define how a Fli1-KIT-METRLN signaling pathway, which links blood vessel cells to immune cells and new vessel growth, limits ischemia-induced heart muscle injury after myocardial infarction.
- Test whether endothelial Fli1 protects heart muscle cells through neuregulin-1 (Nrg1), a growth signal that acts on the ErbB2 receptor, in ischemic mouse hearts.
More about the research
This project centers on Fli1 (Friend leukemia integration 1), a gene-regulating protein known to guide blood vessel formation in the embryo. Its role in the adult heart has been unknown. The lab hypothesizes that endothelial Fli1 is essential for the cell-to-cell communication that limits damage from ischemia, the loss of blood supply, and that it helps prevent heart failure.
Why it matters
Ischemic heart disease, including heart attacks, can damage heart muscle and lead to heart failure. Endothelial Fli1 sits at the meeting point of communication among blood vessel cells, immune cells and heart muscle cells. The project suggests it could be a new therapeutic target for limiting heart muscle damage and pumping weakness after loss of blood flow.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jidong Fu
Ohio State University, OH·Medicine & Clinical Research
Characterize how Masir, a membrane-associated long noncoding RNA, protects heart muscle cells from ischemic injury by enhancing membrane repair, and assess its safety in mouse models.
Xiaolei Liu
Temple University, PA·Physiology
Determine the molecular pathways and targets through which lymphatic growth in the heart improves cardiomyocyte survival after myocardial infarction, building on survival signals such as Reelin released by lymphatic endothelial cells.
Radhika Muzumdar
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Physiology
Determine how effectively humanin, a small peptide encoded in mitochondria, protects the heart in mouse models of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury and ischemia-induced heart failure in aging, measuring infarct size and cardiac function.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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