A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Investigate Vascular Dysfunction in Obesity and Diabetes: From Molecular Mechanism to Therapeutic Intervention

Professor Xu, Aimin   (Project Coordinator (PC))

Emeritus Professor Lam Karen Siu Ling   (Co-principal investigator)

Professor Vanhoutte Paul Michel Georges Remi   (Co-principal investigator)

Professor Huang Yu   (Co-principal investigator)

Professor Wu Ed Xuekui   (Co-principal investigator)

Dr Cheng King Yip   (Co-principal investigator)

Dr Woo Wai Hong Connie   (Co-principal investigator)

Professor Wang Yu   (Co-principal investigator)

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2015-06-20

8780850

A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Investigate Vascular Dysfunction in Obesity and Diabetes: From Molecular Mechanism to Therapeutic Intervention

Adipokines, Adipose tissue inflammation, Atherosclerosis, Immunometabolism, Macrophage polarization

Cardiovascular Research,Diabetes/Metabolism

C7055-14G

Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) - Group Research Project

2014

Completed

1) To interrogate whether elevated miR-34a and reduced miR-883b in adipose tissues are important contributors to obesity-associated adipose tissue inflammation, vascular dysfunction and atherosclerosis in rodents and humans; 2) To investigate the molecular mechanism by which miR-34a and miR-883b fine-tunes macrophage infiltration and polarization in adipose tissues; 3) To elucidate how the two small lipid-binding adipokines (A-FABP and lipocalin-2) mediate obesity-induced M2→M1 macrophage polarization and vascular dysfunction in rodents; 4) To validate whether A-FABP and lipocalin-2 are viable therapeutic targets for obesityinduced adipose inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis in pigs.