Tag Archives: high blood pressure

The Circadian Rhythm’s Role in the Kidney
Emilio Roig
Junior, Microbiology & Cell Science
University of Florida
2019 STRIDE Fellow

My Research Project

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every three people in U.S. is affected by high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension. Hypertension is a serious health concern because it significantly increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney damage. In healthy individuals, blood pressure dips at night, allowing the heart to experience a period of time in which it is not under significant stress. However, some individuals have been diagnosed with what is termed as “non-dipping” hypertension in which blood pressure is constantly elevated, putting them at greater risk for cardiovascular disease. The fluctuation of blood pressure between night and day is regulated by our body’s circadian clock. The circadian clock is the body’s intrinsic time keeper, telling us when to wake up, when to eat and when to sleep. At the molecular level, every cell in the body also contains its own clock, including kidney cells. To better understand the circadian contribution to blood pressure, my research project for the summer of 2019 has been focused on studying the role of Per1, is one of the main circadian regulators in the kidney. The kidneys are responsible for filtering blood and are directly involved in the control of blood pressure. By removing the circadian rhythm gene Per1 from a specific region of the kidney, its contribution to blood pressure can be determined by comparing it to normal individuals that have the Per1 gene. Our goal for this project was to demonstrate why some individuals develop hypertension or fail don’t experience the normal drop in blood pressure at rest. Understanding the mechanism behind why some people develop “non-dipping” hypertension could potentially lead to better cures and therapies, thereby lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Realities of Research

Even though this was not my first time working in a lab, it was the first time that I began working full time. Five days a week, my day began at 9 a.m. and would finish at 5p.m. However, sometimes I would find myself in deep thought about my project beyond those hours. I learned quickly that research is taking a step out into the unknown, meaning taking time to truly understand the complexities of the body’s physiology. Often,the results of my experiments were unexpected and generated more questions than answers. Other times the experiments would simply fail; the first Western Blot I ever attempted was an adventure. By spending a large majority of time in the lab, I have gained a new appreciation for researchers. Being a researcher takes persistence, creativity and an open mind.

Life as a Scientist

My sheer curiosity about the world is what originally drove me to become involved in research as soon as I began college. The American Physiological Society gave me the opportunity to develop as a scientist, immersing me in the vast complexities of scientific phenomena. Science can often be frustrating because things don’t always go as planned. But the moment new discoveries are made, every failure along the way becomes irrelevant. Persistence took on a new meaning for me the moment I had begun trying my own experiments, and that’s the beauty of science. When something finally is successful, it can open a whole world of possibilities.

Emilio Roig is a junior majoring in microbiology and cell science at the University of Florida (UF), located in the city of Gainesville. He is a Short-Term Research Education Program to Increase Diversity in Health-Related Research (STRIDE) Fellow working in Dr. Michelle Gumz’s lab at the UF College of Medicine. His summer of research was funded by the American Physiological Society and through a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant #1 R25 HL115473-01). After graduation, Emilio plans to pursue a career in medicine so that he can fulfill his dream of preventing and curing disease.

Neural Networks of Hypertension

Chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects one in every three adults in the United States and nearly 1 billion people worldwide. It has been shown that the hormone, Angiotensin II (ANG-II), acts within the brain to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, leading to hypertension. A region in the brain that is particularly sensitive to ANG-II and is involved in hypertension is the subfornical organ (SFO). The SFO is connected by neural projections to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), and this pathway has been suggested to be important in cardiovascular regulation. The hypothesis of my study is that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the SFO-PVN projecting neurons is a cause of ANG-II hypertension. To test my hypothesis, the study will be split into two portions. In the first set of experiments, we will use staining of brain tissue (immunohistochemistry) to evaluate whether infusion of ANG-II causes ER stress in SFO neurons that send projections to the PVN.  If we find ER stress in these neurons, we will use genetic approaches (CAV2-Cre-GFP and AAV2-Flex-GRP78) to inhibit ER stress and determine whether this also prevented ANG-II hypertension from developing.

What did you learn working in the lab?

Working in Dr. Young’s lab has been enlightening, exciting, and frustrating at times. There are many skills that take a great deal of practice to master that are required for studies like this one. For example, in order to perform Immunohistochemistry to identify markers of ER stress in the brains—a technique I learned this summer—I first had to learn to use a cryostat to precisely slice and collect the brains onto glass slides. I sliced dozens of practice brains before I mastered the skill and even now after weeks of practice, I still face challenges and make mistakes while performing this task. I also learned skills like suturing, small procedures, injections, bench work, and many others.

I very much enjoy the lab environment. It is great to have such a close-knit team that genuinely wants to help each other succeed. I wasn’t anticipating the level of team work involved in running a research lab, but that is truly the foundation. I would say that the friendships are the best part of working in a lab. The worst part of working in the lab is the waiting. For example, I surgically placed ANG-II osmotic pumps in the mice and then had to wait two weeks before taking the next step in my study. During that time, I practiced on the cryostat a lot, but there was still significant down time that I filled with tasks unrelated to my project such as helping other lab members with their work, cleaning, etc.

Melanie Judice is a senior majoring in Biology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.. She is an Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow (UGSRF) working in Dr. Colin Young’s lab at the George Washington University. Mary’s fellowship is funded by the American Physiological Society. After graduation, Melanie plans to continue research in the Young lab while pursuing entry into the medical field.