Document Actions
Pippa Cosper
303-492-7191
Heart Group
|  |
Cancer cachexia is a complex catabolic disorder that causes severe skeletal muscle atrophy. It affects more than 5 million people in the United States and causes nearly one-third of cancer deaths. Many circulating factors induced by the tumor, such as pro-inflammatory cytokines, are implicated in the degradation of skeletal muscle. Interestingly, these cytokines cause the specific degradation of fast myosin heavy chain IIb. A great deal of work has been done on cancer cachexia in skeletal muscle, but little is known regarding the effect of cancer on cardiac muscle. Several studies have observed a decrease in heart mass due to a tumor burden but information regarding the mechanisms and extent of myosin degradation is lacking. I am studying the molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiac muscle atrophy in tumor-bearing mice and in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes in vitro. I plan to determine the extent of cardiac atrophy and resulting functional changes, the quantitative changes in cardiac myosin heavy chain expression, and the proteolytic pathways involved in cancer-induced cardiac myosin heavy chain degradation. Elucidating these mechanisms will allow me to set the foundation to find potential therapeutic targets with the hope of decreasing cardiac atrophy and preserving cardiac function in multiple disease states.
