Only
one month to go until our annual Scientific meeting (see Jaye’s section below).
Don’t forget to register. Please click here to register.
HYPERTENSION LATEST NEWS: We would like to hear from
members with items of particular news interest to members. However, in the
meantime there are a number of internet sites which feature the latest
hypertension news such as
·
Medline Plus:
High Blood Pressure
Some are commercial such as the AstraZenica site.
This month’s feature
article is from Monash University
Physiology which has been collated by Our own Kate Denton. Due to the large number of groups
involved in Hypertension research at Physiology we have decided to present the
article in 2 parts, so stay tuned for part 2 in December.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE from Stephen Harrap
We are all looking forward to getting together in Melbourne for our Annual Scientific Meeting in a month's time. It will be a special event for many reasons. Expect to see lots of new things this year. These will be evident not only through the innovative scientific program organised by Jaye (see her section below), but also through the announcement of several new exciting initiatives including the redevelopment of our web-site for which we owe Geoff and his son Ben a sincere debt of thanks. To top it all off we have our Gala Dinner at the Museum of Victoria to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Foundation for High Blood Pressure Research. It should be a hoot! See you there!
27TH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC MEETING NEWS from Jaye Chin
Dusting
I am back in Melbourne with a vengeance. Thank you to all those who sent their good
wishes following my London Bomb experience; all I can say is - it is good to
know that some one out there is reading all this blurb!
This is our last newsletter before
the HBPRCA Annual Scientific Meeting. If you haven't already registered; do
so. We received close to 100 abstracts
with 35 applications for our Young Investigator Awards.
All abstracts were scored by at
least 3 (and some 4) judges across the nation and the Final Program has been
confirmed.
Two of my personal aims for our
Annual Scientific Meetings are
a) to
highlight the work of those I think are the key players in pushing the envelope
for our science - the Post-doctoral Fellows and
b) to
engineer the Poster Sessions such that they become a vibrant hub for scientific
exchange.
Towards this end, new prize
categories have been initiated especially targeted for Post-Docs; the first of
which will be awarded this year for the best poster from a post-doc "New
Researcher" (see below for details) and the second of which will kick in
from 2006. These have been made
possible through generous support from Clinical Science and the Foundation
respectively. To oomph up the Poster
Session; the Overall TOP 6 Abstracts from RO/SROs were short-listed for
competition of the Clinical Science New Investigator Award and will be
show-cased in a "Moderated Poster Session": selected presenters will
be asked to give a 2 min description of their work followed by a Q and A session
led by a senior member of the Council.
Similarly a "Moderated Poster Session" has been scheduled for
the Young Investigator (Student) Poster Prize.
So, if you have missed the key
details: let me regurgitate them for you:
Where: Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, 30 Flemington Rd, University of Melbourne
When: Dec 7-9
(Dec 7th - Wednesday evening: Clinical Workshop: NB: No Saturday Workshop))
Invited
Speakers Anna
Dominiczak (Glasgow), Terry Dwyer (Melbourne); Shaun Jackson (Melbourne)
Special
Appearance: Our 13
Foundation Fellows
Also
Featuring: the
British Hypertension Society Young Investigator Winner
And,
of course: Yourselves!
Dinner: Thursday 8th December at the Melbourne Museum "Celebrating 10 Years of The Foundation"
Awards: Young
Investigator Award (Oral): the winner will be sent to UK to present their work
to the British Hypertension Society.
Young
Investigator Award (Poster): ($1,000)
*New"
Clinical Science New Investigator Poster Prize (for post-docs within 8 years of
receiving their PhDs; $500 + 1 year subscription to Clinical Science)
Please click here to register.
MEMBERSHIP MESSAGE Doug McKitrick
It is still not too late to
register to attend the HBPRCA meeting in December. However, even if a trip to
the HBPRCA annual general meeting isn’t on for this year your students,
post-docs and research associates can still benefit from HBPRCA membership
throughout the year. And perhaps you have colleagues that really should be part
of the HBPRCA. Membership never closes.
As we are starting to strengthen
our clinical ties, we again remind you to start thinking about who of your
clinical colleagues might be interested in membership with Australia’s premier society
for hypertension-related research and information. More information on clinical
membership will follow in the coming months.
If you have specific comments or concerns with your membership, or issues affecting membership generally, accept the invitation to communicate them directly to the Membership Secretary, Dr Doug McKitrick, via contact details available on the HBPRCA website.
MEMBERSHIP COMPETITION: We are running a competition
to see who can nominate the most new members. The target to beat is Jaye with 4
so far. The prize will be awarded at the AGM.
Society News from Kate Denton
The British Hypertension Society Young
Investigator Award Winner for 2005 is Dr Carmel McEniery
Dr Carmel McEniery is a British Heart Foundation Postdoctoral
Research Fellow at the Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Cambridge,
U.K. Carmel is the first recipient of the new initiative to establish closer
links between the BHS and HBPRCA. As winner of the young investigator prize at
this years BHS meeting, Carmel has been invited to present at our upcoming
meeting. Our student prize winner will be extended a similar opportunity to
present at the BHS meeting in September, 2006.
Carmel's main area of current research is arterial stiffness, and
in particular, the mechanisms driving the changes in arterial stiffness with
ageing. She is also involved in research into the mechanisms underlying
systolic hypertension in young people, this work forms part of The Enigma
Study, a long-term follow-up study investigating the origins of hypertension.
In addition Carmel has an interest in endothelial function, and particularly,
the role of the vascular endothelium in the regulation of arterial stiffness.
HBPRCA members are encouraged to
introduce themselves to Carmel at the meeting and I hope that all will give her
a warm welcome. Any members that would like to take the opportunity to invite
Carmel to visit their laboratory during her visit should in the first instance
contact our Society Liaison Dr Kate Denton (kate.denton@med.monash.edu.au).
New Positions Available
Associate
Lecturer, Human Physiology and Pharmacology
Faculty of Sciences, University of
Southern Queensland, Toowoomba
Applications are invited from
suitably qualified persons for the position of Associate Lecturer in Human
Physiology/Pharmacology. The successful candidate will teach into the Bachelor
of Biomedical Science, Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Nursing Programs.
Appointment is available on a fixed term basis for three years.
Applications close: 11th November 2005. For full details got please click here.
Cardiovascular
Research at Monash Physiology (Part 1)
Cardiovascular Research at Monash
University is represented by a group of over 50 research staff and students and
is lead by Professor Warwick Anderson; Head of the Department of Physiology,
and of Monash’s School of Biomedical Sciences (see photo left). This month part I features the integrative
renal and cardiovascular laboratories. Next month part II features other
aspects of vascular disease, including diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Cardiovascular research at Monash
Physiology
focuses on the causes of the primary cardiovascular disease processes of
hypertension and vessel wall dysfunction and damage. Given the prevalence of
cardiovascular disease and hypertension world-wide, it is remarkable that more
than 100 years since the introduction of the sphygmomanometer, we still have
only a rudimentary understanding of how the body regulates arterial blood
pressure. It is essential to understand
this if we are to understand what causes high blood pressure and thus how it
can be prevented or targeted more effectively. For vessel dysfunction, much
more progress has been made in recent years, mainly through advances in our
understanding of endothelial cell and vascular smooth muscle biology; but the
voyage of discovery has only just begun.
What seems clear is that the integrative biosciences and the approaches
known as systems biology will play increasingly important roles.
Hypertension
Our primary focus is on the kidney in hypertension,
including the study of neural regulation of renal function and neural
plasticity, on genetic and environmental factors affecting renal development,
on the roles of local paracrine factors, and on the filtration/vessel
interface. We take as our underlying hypothesis that long term blood pressure
levels depend in a major way on the kidney, with its ability to quickly raise
or lower pressure through the powerful pressure-natriuresis mechanism. Whatever
else changes as hypertension develops, there must be some alteration to this
relationship for the pressure to remain elevated while blood fluid balance is
maintained. This question can really only be addressed fully in vivo. Some of our specific projects are described
below.
Figure: Scanning electromicrograph of a cast of the
renal vasculature. (scale 1mm). Denton et al CEPP, 2004
Renal medullary
mechanisms
Roger Evans, Gabriela
Eppel, Michelle Kett, Kate Denton
The renal medullary circulation has
emerged as a major factor in long-term control of arterial pressure. Our work has focussed on understanding how
hormonal and neural factors interact in the control of medullary perfusion.
Our major recent findings include:
Students and Collaborators: Dr Niwanthi Rajapakse
(Medical College of Wisconsin), Dr Erika Boesen (Medical College of Georgia),
Dr Lisa Duke (Melbourne law firm), Assoc Prof Rob Widdop (Pharmacology,
Monash), Dr John Haynes (Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Biology, Monash), Prof
Kerry Hourigan and Dr Greg Sheard (Mechanical Engineering, Monash University);
Prof Arthur Lowery and Dr Malin Premaratne (Electrical Engineering, Monash),
Assoc Prof Geoff Head and Sandra Burke (Baker Heart Institute,), Assoc Prof
Simon Malpas (Auckland).
Left Back: Chai Ling Leong, Amelie Dinsdale, Gavin Dyson,
Sarah Richerson, Jessica Cox, Dr Roger Evans, Assoc Prof Helena Parkington,
Hommira Bashari.
Left front: Dr Sharyn Fitzgerald, Leah-Anne Ruta, Dr
Michelle Kett, Dr Amany Shweta, Dr Gabriela Eppel.
Renal regulatory
mechanisms in glomerular pressure and tubulo-glomerular feedback control
Kate Denton and Warwick
Anderson
A key factor in long-term blood
pressure regulation via the pressure natriuresis mechanism is control of
glomerular filtration pressure within precise limits, achieved by the
physiological regulation of pre- and post-glomerular vascular resistance.
However, this is a difficult area to study, since it can be studied only in
vivo, and by micropuncture measurements of the glomerular capillary
pressures. Kate Denton's lab is one of
only a handful in the world that has mastered the technically demanding
methodologies and, as well, she has maintained a colony of rabbits with
glomerular accessible on the surface of the kidney (the only such colony
world-wide). Her work has made major contributions to our understanding of
differential afferent/efferent regulatory mechanisms, to the role of
angiotensin II and renal nerves, and to tubulo-glomerular feedback regulation
of GFR.
Students and Collaborators: Amanda Sampson,
Professor Jurgen Schnermann (NIH, USA), Dr Russell Brown (Uppsala University,
Sweden).
Renal nerves
Kate Denton, Amany Shweta, Helena
Parkington, Harry Coleman, Gaby Eppel, Warwick Anderson
Kate, Helena, Warwick and their teams,
with Susan Luff, have made several major new findings that redefine our
understanding on the role of nerves in the kidney. In brief, these findings
are:
Two different types of sympathetic
nerves innervate renal effectors
One type runs almost exclusively
to the pre-glomerular resistance vessels, the other (Type II) is distributed to
both pre-and post-glomerular vessels.
The neurotransmitter NPY is only present in Type II renal nerves.
This allows differential
regulation of glomerular filtration pressure.
Kate has shown that, for example, mild hypoxia activates only the latter
nerves, and this helps maintain GFR even during quite strong renal
vasoconstriction. Severe hypoxia, however, activates also the nerves that
supply only pre-glomerular vessels, causes a profound vasoconstriction and
falling GFR.
The innervation of the renal
vasculature is plastic – changes in the renin-angiotensin system affect the
density of innervation of the kidney. This has important functional
consequences. We have shown that renal
nerve stimulation causes a markedly more pronounced vasoconstriction of renal
resistance vessels in rats with prolonged angiotensin II infusion.
NPY contributes to vascular
responses to electrical stimulation of the renal nerves in both the cortex and
medulla, not only directly via Y1-receptor mediated vasoconstriction, but more
profoundly by modulating α1-adrenoceptor mediated vasoconstriction.
A novel pro-constrictor ion
channel has been identified in arterioles. The spasm-like constriction evoked
by neurotransmitters may involve this channel, and be altered in disease. We
are in the process of characterizing the properties of this channel.
Students and Collaborators: Amelie
Dinsdale, Dr Susan Luff (Monash Micro-imaging), Assoc Prof Geoff Head (Baker
Heart Institute).
Fig. 4 Schema of the distribution
of the 2 populations of nerves innervating the glomerular arterioles (Denton et
al, CEPP 2004).
Renal oxygenation
Rogers Evans, Paul
O’Connor, Warwick Anderson
We recently demonstrated that
reduced blood flow in the renal cortex could decrease tissue PO2 in the renal
medulla, even when medullary perfusion is maintained. We believe this finding has important implications for the
prevention and management of acute renal failure, which is primarily a
condition of hypoxic damage in the outer medulla. It seems likely that the dependence of medullary PO2 on cortical
perfusion results from the shunting of oxygen from arteries to veins in the
kidney. This, in part, led Paul
O'Connor to develop the novel hypothesis that preglomerular arterial-venous
oxygen shunting is a structural antioxidant defence mechanism in the kidney.
Students and Collaborators: Dr Paul O’Connor (Medical College of Wisconsin), Dr Grant Drummond (Department of Pharmacology, Monash University). Recent Papers from Cardiovascular research at Monash Physiology
1. Denton
KM, Shweta A, Flower RL, and Anderson WP. Predominant postglomerular vascular resistance
response to reflex renal sympathetic nerve activation during ANG II clamp in
rabbits. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 287: R780-786, 2004.
2. Evans RG,
Eppel GA, Anderson WP, and Denton KM. Mechanisms underlying the differential
control of blood flow in the renal medulla and cortex. J Hypertens 22:
1439-1451, 2004.
3. O'Connor P
M, Kett MM, Anderson WP, and Evans RG. Renal Medullary Tissue Oxygenation is
Dependant on both Cortical and Medullary Blood Flow. Am J Physiol Renal
Physiol, 2005. In Press
4. Parkington
HC, Dodd J, Luff SE, Worthy K, Coleman HA, Tare M, Anderson WP, and Edgley AJ.
Selective increase in renal arcuate innervation density and neurogenic constriction
in chronic angiotensin II-infused rats. Hypertension 43: 643-648, 2004.
With best wishes,
Associate Professor Geoffrey A.
Head
________________________________________________________________
Website
Athina
Patti at
Meetings
First
t 61 3
9739 7697
f 61 3 9739 7076
MEETINGS IN 2005
|
|
|
American Heart Association Scientific
sessions Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the society website |
High Blood Pressure Research Council 27th Annual Scientific Meeting
Wednesday 7th
December 2005 for the Clinical Workshop starting at 4:30 pm. Thursday-Friday
8-9th December for the Main Scientific meeting Bio21, 30
Flemington Road, Carlton Victoria 3053 Australia. Click here for
Meeting website and Society Web Page
|
|
ASMR National Scientific Conference On Hormones, Fertility and Cancer Couran Cove, Queensland November 20-23 2005 Click here to view the Conference notice
Click here for society
website |
The
Beilin Symposium December 6-7,
2005 Alan Gilbert
Building University of
Melbourne, Melbourne Click here for Meeting
website Click here for the
flyer |
Asian Pacific Society of Nuclear Cardiology
Annual Scientific Meeting
Annual scientific
meeting Mumbai, INDIA Thursday,
December 1 – Sunday, December 4, 2005 Click here for meeting
website Click
here for Asian Pacific Society of Nuclear Cardiology
website |
|
MEETINGS IN 2006
|
|
International Conference on Healthy Ageing and Longevity
3rd Annual
Meeting Friday, October
13 – Sunday, October 15, 2006 Melbourne Exhibition
and ConventionCentre – Melbourne, AUSTRALIA Click
here for meeting website
|
International Society of Hypertension
21st Scientific
Meeting Saturday, October
15 – Wednesday, October 19, 2006 Fukuoka International Congress
Centre – Fukuoka, JAPAN Click
here for
meeting website Click here for
International Society of hypertension web page |
|
American Heart Association Obesity,
Lifestyle, and Cardiovascular Disease Symposium. Grand Hyatt
Washington - Washington, DC Jan 18-20, 2006 Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
American Stroke Association
A Division of American Heart Association
International Stroke Conference, Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee,
Florida February
16-18 2006 Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
|
American Society of Hypertension Annual meeting New York City,
Hilton Hotel Click here for the meeting
website Click here for the
society website |
European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure 2006 17 June 2006 - 20 June 2006
Helsinki, Finland
Click
here for the meeting website
Click here for the society website
|
World Congress of Cardiology 2006
2-6
September 2006 “Bringing together the European
Society of Cardiology Congress 2006 and the World Heart Federation's XVth World
Congress of Cardiology.”
Barcelona, Spain
Click here for the
meeting website
Click here for the society website
|
Experimental Biology 2006 1-5 April 2006 Moscone Convention centre,
San Francisco, CA, USA Click
here for the meeting website
Click here for the society website |