Project III

Project III is focused on the role of immune cells in PVAT. In particular, we are interested in how immune cells in PVAT contribute to inflammation associated with high fat diet and hypertension.

about Project III

Mission

Our mission is to test the hypothesis that the environment of PVAT impacts immune cell function.

Specifically, we hypothesize that during health the environment of PVAT controls immune cell function and thereby prevents inflammation. Conversely, during high fat diet, we hypothesize that the environment of PVAT promotes inflammatory activity of immune cells.

Project III Team

Jamie Bernard

Associate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Project III Collaborator, Project IV Collaborator

Jamie is our resident expert in adipose biology. She also has a particular interest in immune cells, which makes her a valuable team member for Project III. She provides consultation on experimental design and approach. She and the members of her laboratory also train students and postdocs on how to make conditioned media from PVAT for in vitro studies.

Cheryl Rockwell

Associate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology & Toxicology.
Acting Director, Applied Immunology Center for Education and Research

Director of Project III. As the leader of Project III, Cheryl is responsible for the overall research direction and progress of the project. She works with the other team members to conceptualize the experiments and interpret the data to try to gain a greater understanding of how immune cells function within the physiology of PVAT. She also assists with writing the manuscripts that result from this research.
Kin Sing Lee

Kin Sing Lee

Associate Professor, Dept of Pharmacology & Toxicology
Project III Collaborator

Sing is the lead chemist for Project III. Sing has extensive background on the identification and quantification of lipids by mass spectrometry. This expertise is invaluable for understanding how the lipid environment in PVAT changes during high fat diet. Why is that important? Many of the lipids that Sing helps us to quantify are immunomodulatory and can greatly impact immune cell function.

Integration with other projects

Due to the intrinsic nature of immune cells, they are highly mobile and interactive with many different cells and tissues, including vasculature, neurons, adipocytes, preadipocytes, etc. Thus, the role of the immune system will also impact Projects I, II and IV. We have a strong interest in the communication that occurs between adipocytes and immune cells and how this impacts inflammation, which is where Project III intersects with Project IV. We are also interested in how immune cells impact stretch, contractility and stiffness of vasculature, which is where this project overlaps with Project I.

Cores involved with Project III

  • Core B: provides the animal models we use and assists with animal procedures.
  • Core C: We work closely with Core C to analyze our transcriptomics data. They also assist with experimental design and implementation of sequencing studies.
  • Core D: helps us to visualize immune cells using microscopy.

Publications

A cell atlas of thoracic aortic perivascular adipose tissue: a focus on mechanotransducers

Janice M Thompson , Stephanie W Watts , Leah Terrian 2, G Andres Contreras , Cheryl Rockwell , C Javier Rendon , Emma Wabel  Lizbeth Lockwood , Sudin Bhattacharya, Rance Nault Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2024 May 1;326(5):H1252-H1265. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00040.2024. Epub 2024 Mar 22. ...

A Cell Atlas of Thoracic Aortic Perivascular Adipose Tissue: a focus on mechanotransducers

Janice M Thompson , Stephanie W Watts, Leah Terrian, G Andres Contreras , Cheryl Rockwell , C Javier Rendon , Emma Wabel , Lizabeth Lockwood , Sudin Bhattacharya , Rance Nault bioRxiv 2023 Oct 9:2023.10.09.561581. doi: 10.1101/2023.10.09.561581. Preprint ...

Protocols

Preparation of conditioned medium from Rat Adipose Tissue