R. Erik Edens, MD, PhD
Research Profile

Research Interests:
Dr. Edens is a pediatric transplant cardiologist that also conducts transplant-related clinical research at University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. His two major research interests are determination of biomarker profiles of immune function in transplant patients and developing strategies to improve management of heart failure caused by myocardial dysfunction. Both studies are clinical/ translational research studies. In his studies of immune biomarkers, he is examining the unique biomarker profiles present in the blood of transplant patients when they experience a variety of immune-mediated complications such as transplant rejection, coronary vasculopathy, infection and lymphoproliferative disorder. The goal of this research is to develop blood tests that may facilitate more rapid detection of these various disease states before tissue damage or serious illness occurs. Likewise, this type of immune function profiling may help distinguish types of infection (viral vs. bacteria vs. fungal) at earlier stages. In the second research focus, Dr. Edens is examining the various strategies for managing myocardial dysfunction in pediatric patients. There are a number of mechanisms by which heart muscle fails in children including dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, neuromuscular cardiomyopathy (such as Duchene's patients), myocarditis and post-chemotherapy induced cardiomyopathy (such as Adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy). Dr. Edens is studying the varied responses of heart failure treatments in these patients whose diseases have different underlying mechanisms. The hypothesis of this work is that heart failure treatments need to be tailored to meet each specific patient's needs. The goal of this work is to improve the management of pediatric heart failure thereby preserving heart function and improving the quality of life of these special patients.

Affiliations:

• Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology
• International Society of Heart Lung Transplant
• American Society of Transplantation
• International Pediatric Transplant Association
• Heart Failure Society of America
• International Society of Pediatric Heart Failure
• American Heart Association
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• International Complement Society

Recent Publications:

1. Rosenthal, DN, Chrisant, MRK, Edens RE, Mahony, L, et al.: International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation: Practice Guidelines for Management of Heart Failure in Children, J Heart Lung Transplant, 23: 1313-33, 2004.
2. Munoz, EM, H Yu, J Hallock, RE Edens and RJ Linhardt: Poly(ethylene glycol)-based biosensor chip to study heparin-protein interactions. Anal Biochem, 343: 176-78, 2005.
3. Yu, H, EM Muñoz, FZ, RE Edens, and RJ Linhardt: Kinetic Studies on the Interaction of Heparin and Complement Proteins Using Surface Plasmon Resonance. Archives Biochem Biophys Acta. 1726: 168-76, 2005.
4. RE Edens, JACS Book Reviews. Review of Polysaccharides: Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility, 2nd Ed., J Am Chem Soc, 127: 10118, 2005.
5. Yu, H, RE Edens, RJ Linhardt. "Heparin Regulation of the Complement System", in Chemistry and Biology of Heparin and Heparan Sulfate, Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, England. Pages 313-343. HG Garg, RJ Linhardt, and CA Hales, Eds., 2005.
6. Edens, RE, Dagtas, S, Gilbert, KG. Histone deacetylase inhibitors induce antigen specific anergy in lymphocytes: A comparative study, Intl. Immunopharmacol., 6: 1673-81, 2006.
7. Wright, EJ, WP Fiser, RE Edens, EA Frazier, WR Morrow, M Imamura, RD Jaquiss: Cardiac Transplant Outcomes in pediatric Patients with Preformed anti-HLA Antibodies and/or Positive Retrospective Crossmatch J. Heart Lung Transpl. 26(11): 1163-9, 2007.
8. Dagtas, AS,? RE Edens, KM Gilbert: Histone deacetylase inhibitor uses p21Cip1 to maintain anergy in CD4+ T cells J. Immunology, submitted 2008.
9. Morrow WR, Naftel DC, Edens RE, Lamour JN, Canter C, Ainley K, Myers S, Kirklin JK, and the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Group, submitted to J Heart Lung Transpl., 2008.
10. Mahle, WT, DC Naftel, Edens, RE, P Rusconi, RE Shaddy: Panel-Reactive Antibody Cross-Reactivity and Outcomes in the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Group, in preparation, J Heart Lung Transpl., 2008. in preparation for J. Heart Lung Transpl., 2008.
11. Edens, RE, D. Naftel, AI Dipchand, P Rusconi, GJ Boyle, TE Zaoutis, and the PHTS: Outcomes of Pnuemocystis Jiroveci Pneumonia Infections in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients, in preparation for J. Heart Lung Transpl., 2008.
12. Pietra B, Kantor P, Bartlett H, Chin C, Canter C, Larsen R, Edens RE, Colan S, Towbin J, Lipshultz S, Kirklin J, Naftel D, Sleeper L, Hsu D: Clinical Factors Associated with UNOS Status and Outcome after Listing for Heart Transplantation in Children with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, In Preparation, 2008.