Physiology Department Research
Will McCumbee, Ph.D.
Professor

Phone: 304/696-7366
Fax: 304/696-7381
E-Mail: mccumbee@marshall.edu

Areas of Research Interest:
1. Mechanisms underlying the development of vascular hypertrophy in hypertension.
2. Metabolic alterations associated with obesity.

Effects of cyclic AMP on vascular smooth muscle cytoskeletal proteins

	Confocal microscopy, using TRITC-labeled phalloidin to label actin, shows actin filaments aligned along the long axis of a cultured vascular smooth muscle cell.
	Vascular smooth muscle cell that has been exposed to 5 mM forskolin to increase intracellular cyclic AMP levels. The cell has assumed a rounded appearance with extensive processes. The actin is depolymerized and condensed around the perinuclear region.

There is an increased expression of complement component C3 in the plasma of obese Zucker rats compared with their lean counterparts

	SDS-polyacrylamide gel showing that a band migrating approximately the same distance as a 116 kDa marker is more intensely expressed in plasma samples from obese Zucker rats than in the plasma samples from lean rats. Partial amino acid sequencing indicated that the peptide in the band was the alpha chain of complement C3. This was confirmed by Western blot analysis.
	An in vitro assay of serum for complement C3 shows that there is a corresponding increase in the activity of complement component C3 in the serum of Zucker obese rats relative to lean rats.

Financial support for graduate students in Physiology at Marshall University

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