ANNUAL REVIEW master Final3a - St Vincent's University Hospital

St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group Limited - Annual Review 2007
Education & Research
Diabetes & Obesity Research
Personnel: Dr. Donal O’Shea, Dr. Jean O’Connell, Dr. Lydia Lynch,
Dr Mohammed Bashir Dr MC Dennedy.
Laboratory work is underway investigating the metabolic and immunological links between obesity and its
consequences, such as type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. A Newman Scholar post is
being funded by Sanofi-Aventis, and the Diabetes Federation of Ireland and the Medical Research Charities
group have recently awarded funding for a 3-year project entitled ‘Adipocyte size and type 2 diabetes; a study
of patients undergoing bariatric surgery’. Dr.O’Connell has been awarded a HRB training fellowship to pursue
this project. The group is increasingly focussing also on the link between obesity and cancer. Funding has
been secured for another Newman Fellowship to start in early 2008. Dr Bashir is looking at novel urinary
biomarkers and diabetes/obesity related kidney disease while Dr Dennedy plans to look at endocanabinoid
regulation of adrenal and ovarian steroidogenesis.
Respiratory Sleep Research
Principal Investigator:
Prof. Walter McNicholas
Summary of Research Activities
The Respiratory Sleep Research Laboratory at St. Vincent’s University Hospital continues a varied clinical and
basic science research programme with a particular emphasis of cardiovascular interactions in obstructive
sleep apnoea (OSA). Ongoing collaboration exists with the research group of Prof. Cormac Taylor in the
Conway Institute at UCD and the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (Prof. Conor Heneghan and
Dr. Madeleine Lowery), also in UCD. Dr. John Garvey and Dr. David McSharry are the Research Fellows
involved.
Together with Prof. Taylor we have an ongoing translational research programme that explores the role of
intermittent hypoxia (IH) in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disorders in OSA. In studies of OSA patients,
and also a unique cell culture model of IH utilising bovine aortic endothelial and HELA cells, we have
demonstrated that IH selectively activates inflammatory over adaptive molecular pathways through the
selective activation of the inflammatory transcription factor NFκB. NFκB has been shown to predispose to
atherogenesis. We have also demonstrated that the NFκB-dependent gene TNF-α is elevated in patients
with OSA and falls to control levels with nasal CPAP therapy.
Currently we are engaged in characterizing the numbers and activation state of circulating neutrophils in
OSAS patients. Our preliminary data has indicated a significant increase in the number of circulating
neutrophils in OSAS patients when compared to controls. The current project includes collating the
neutrophil counts of the patients (over 1200 patients) studied to date from the sleep laboratory database in
St. Vincent’s University Hospital. Blood samples are being collected from OSAS patients and non-apnoeaic
controls in a prospective fashion and the basal activation state and response to stimulation of circulating
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