Robin Davisson, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and cell biology in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, received the grant, one of only 25 National Established Investigator awards given by the American Heart Association this year.

Oxidative stress occurs when the balance between reactive oxygen species and the antioxidant molecules that neutralize them tips in favor of the reactive oxygen species. Davisson and her team will investigate the idea that excessive production of reactive oxygen species in the central nervous system following a heart attack causes increased signaling between the brain and the cardiovascular system, which ultimately leads to heart failure.

Although the exact mechanism is unclear, scientists do know that the central nervous system responds to a heart attack with increased electrical and chemical signaling designed to keep the injured heart functioning. However, over time, this adaptive "overdrive" response becomes damaging and heart failure occurs.

Recent studies by Davisson's team show that increasing the level of an antioxidant molecule, which "mops up" excess reactive oxygen species, normalized signaling between the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system in the brains of mice with heart failure.

"Normally, a mouse would be in very serious heart failure within four weeks of a heart attack," Davisson said. "The scavenger antioxidant molecule dramatically slows down the time until heart failure and also improves the cardiac performance in those mice."

Harnessing the power of a number of newly developed molecular tools, in combination with state-of-the-art imaging and cardiovascular analysis in a mouse model of heart attack-induced heart failure, Davisson's team will begin to dissect how reactive oxygen species in the brain are involved in heart attack-induced heart failure.

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Robin Davisson, Ph.D.

Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine