Julia Boster
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Children with long-term liver disease often lose muscle mass and strength, a condition called sarcopenia, and those who do tend to fare worse. Many of these children have chronic cholestasis, in which bile does not flow properly from the liver.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Biochemistry
- Topics
sarcopenia
muscle wasting
chronic cholestasis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Measure mitochondrial respiration, reactive oxygen species production and oxidative stress in abdominal muscle from children with chronic cholestasis, using Oroboros O2k respirometry, and relate them to sarcopenia.
- Compare regulators of proteostasis, the balance of muscle protein building and breakdown, in muscle from children with chronic cholestasis with and without sarcopenia.
- Determine how bile acid concentrations relate to mitochondrial function and protein metabolism in muscle from children with chronic cholestasis.
- Test directly how the amount and composition of bile acids affect mitochondrial function, oxidative stress and protein synthesis in cultured C2C12 myotubes, a mouse muscle cell model.
More about the research
As a result, bile acids (digestive molecules made by the liver) reach abnormal levels in the blood and liver. No one knows exactly why these children lose muscle, which makes effective treatments hard to design.
Why it matters
Children with chronic cholestatic liver disease often lose muscle, and this muscle loss is linked to poor outcomes, including around liver transplantation. By pinning down how mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, protein breakdown and bile acids are connected in their muscle, this work could identify targets for future treatments aimed at preserving muscle and improving outcomes for these children.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Bumsoo Ahn
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The school
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus: 41 labs on PI Pages, $766M a year on research, 205 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus
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