by Jennifer Kowalewski

The Appalachian Rural Health Institute’s (ARHI) Diabetes/Endocrine Center monthly seminar will take place Tuesday, Oct. 11. Shawn Bender, Ph.D. candidate in the departments of biomedical sciences and biological sciences, will present “Functional Alteration in Coronary Arteries of Pre-Diabetic Obese Mice” at noon in Grosvenor Hall, Room 113. The second Tuesday of the month, ARHI sponsors a seminar presenting important diabetes and/or cardiovascular research for college and university audiences.

“We use a mouse model of diet-induced obesity and diabetes to examine alterations in coronary function by utilizing pharmacological methods. Specifically, we are interested in three coronary regulatory systems: the nitric oxide, endothelin-1 and alpha-adrenoceptor systems,” Bender says.

In the past, research has focused on the systems individually. The research being done by Bender looks at obesity and diabetes and how they interact across the three. Bender works under the direction of Richard Klabunde, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences.

Research has pointed to coronary function suffering tremendously in the diabetic state.

“We have found very significant alterations in coronary function in these animals that have been obese and diabetic for fewer than four months,” says Bender. “Imagine then the effect that 10 years of diabetes would have in human coronary arteries? As we know, the impact is very significant, especially here in Appalachian Ohio.

“Heart disease is the leading cause of death for diabetics in this country. A dysfunctional coronary system is one of the early and integral steps for the occurrence of a heart attack.”

Knowing exactly how diabetes negatively affects coronary functions can help medical personnel intervene to correct the problem. Following this study, there are more questions to be answered, such as determining the role of oxygen free radicals in diabetes induced coronary dysfunction and analyzing the effectiveness of antioxidants in reducing these defects.

“I’m excited to present our work in this series,” says Bender. “The emphasis on diabetes research here at the University benefits tremendously from it, not only from the exposure to what each lab is doing but also in the collaborative opportunities that arise from the discussions during the series. Our work is just a piece of the diabetes puzzle and this series gives us a chance to “talk” with the other pieces in an effort to see the big picture of how diabetes is seen in our experimental models and how that ultimately will translate into human advancement in the prevention and treatment of diabetes.”

The ARHI Diabetes/Endocrine Center’s ongoing mission is research and educational programs that further diabetes research, improve patient care and clinical training, and promote diabetes education.

For more information, please contact Suzanne Vazzano, administrative assistant, at (740) 593-2333.