Dr. Zahner and Dr. Forsman Receive Grant from NHLIB
Dr. Matthew Zahner, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Allan Forsman, Professor, in East Tennessee State University College of Public Health’s Department of Health Sciences, received a three-year, Academic Research Enhancement Grant for $437,335 from the National Institutes of Health to study the how the brain regulates metabolism and blood pressure.
Metabolic syndrome refers to the clustering of known cardiovascular risk factors including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other emerging risk factors within an individual. Heart disease still remains the leading cause of death in the world and people with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack and five-fold more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Thus, there is a clear need to better treat metabolic syndrome and its related comorbidities. Zahner and his fellow investigators Dr. Forsman and Dr. Lu are studying how Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 (FGF 21) functions within the brain.
FGF 21 is an important metabolic regulator and functions, in part, through central activation of the sympathetic nervous system. However, many times drugs that increase metabolism, a seemingly good thing for weight loss, may also activate areas of the brain that can cause hypertension, one of the very things we are trying to reduce in this population. The goal of this research project is to identify FGF 21-induced activation of key hypothalamic sites within the brain that are responsible for the regulation of metabolic vs cardiovascular-related sympathetic activity. “We have identified these cells within the brain that control metabolism and cells that control blood pressure. We now have to see if FGF21 can differentially activate them” said Dr. Zahner, “this is important because it will help to create the groundwork in determining whether or not potential treatments for diabetes affects how the brain controls blood pressure.”
In addition to this research grant, Dr. Zahner recently received another three-year grant for $436,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study how the different areas of the brain respond to myocardial ischemia and may make the ischemia worse.