Faculty

Yafeng Dong, PhD
Research Assistant Professor Obstetrics & Gynecology

Research Description

Hypoxemia is recognized as a prime cause of fetal organ damage leading to morbidity and mortality in infants. Recent studies reveal an association between fetal hypoxemia damage and a marked inflammatory reaction that contributes to the tissue injury. With the approach of gene microarray and quantitation PCR techniques, we indicated that degrees of hypoxia induced stress created fetal organ damage via up regulation fetal pro-inflammatory cytokines; pro-inflammatory cytokines play a central role in the causation of fetal organ damage in hypoxia condition. However, the specific mechanism underlying these processes is poorly understood. The ultimate goal of our lab is to study the molecular mechanism of pro-inflammatory cytokine regulation in hypoxemia fetus. We initially indicated that multiple pathways involved in the pro-inflammatory cytokine regulation. Further studies will be performed. Overall, an understanding of this mechanism is essential to elucidate how the fetal organ is damaged by combined risk factors such as chronic hypoxemia, ischemia reperfusion and infection, as well as understanding the adaptive/maladaptive response of the fetus. This study will provide evidence for the development of preventative therapies.

Representative Publications

Lin R, Roseborough G, Dong Y, Williams GM, Wei C. DNA damage and repair system in spinal card ischemia. Journal of vascular surgery 2003. 37(4):847-858.

Murphy K, Gerzanich V, Zhou H, Ivanova S, Dong Y, HoffmanG, West GA, Winn HR, Simard JM. Adenosine-A2a Receptor Down-Regulates Cerebral Smooth Muscle L-Type Ca2+ Channel Activity Via Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase, Not Camp- Dependent Protein Kinase. Molecular Pharmacology 2003. 64(3):640-649.

Chen M, Dong Y, Simard JM. Functional Coupling between Sulfonylurea Receptor-1 and a Non-selective Cation Channel in Reactive Astrocytes from Adult Rat Brain. The Journal of Neuroscience 2003. 24:8568-8577.

Thompson LP, Dong Y. Chronic hypoxia decreases endothelial nitric oxide synthase protein expression in fetal guinea pig hearts. J Soc Gynecol Investig 2005. 12(6):388-95.

Dong Y. Differential expression of eNOS in coronary and cardiac tissue of hypoxic fetal guinea pig hearts. J Soc Gynecol Investig 2006. In Press.

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