Rajagopalan Lab

Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD
John W. Wolfe Professor of Cardiovascular Research
Professor of Medicine and Radiology
460 W 12th Avenue Floor 3, Room 398
Biomedical Research Tower
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210-1252
O: 614-247-7760
F: 614-688-4233
E-mail: sanjay.rajagopalan@osumc.edu

Labs

Members of the Group
Inflammation and Molecular Physiology Group
Qinghua Sun, MD, PhD Assistant Professor (Team Leader)
Aixia Wang, BS, Research Assistant
Jeff Deiuliis,PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Peibin Yue, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Nishar Ahmed Kherada, MD, Postdoctoral Researcher
Ryan Williams,BS, Research Assistant
Thomas Kampfrath, MS, Visiting Scholar
Zhekang Ying, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher

Imaging Group
Georgeta Mihai, PhD,  Research Scientist (MRI Physicist) (Team Leader)
Andrew Moiseev, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher (Chemist)
Britten Farrar, MD, Clinical Research Fellow
Mbabazi Kariisa, MPH,  Clinical Research Coordinator

Students Visiting Scientists
Ling Zheng, MD, PhD, Visiting Scholar
Matt Verdin, Undergraduate Student
Zubin Yavar, Undergraduate Student

Current Research

Cardiovascular Effects of Inhaled Nanoparticulates
One of the current interests in the lab is understanding the effects of inhaled particulate substances on vascular function and physiology. This includes exposure to ambient particulates such as air pollution as well as understanding of the vascular consequences of inhalational delivery of respirable nanoparticles. Two funded projects are currently examining the effects of ambient air borne particles on the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis, hypertension and insulin resistance. The projects will investigate the effects of airborne exposure to particles on vascular function, reactive oxygen species pathways, and inflammation using a variety of physiologic molecular and imaging based approaches. A major objective of the laboratory is to perform detailed investigation on inflammatory cell populations that are activated in response to diverse stimuli including pulmonary exposure. The protocol will utilize cutting edge intra-vital microscopic and flow cytometric approaches to investigate involvement of specific cell sub-populations in this process.

Molecular Imaging Approaches for Inflammation
A subsidiary interest in the lab being developed in partnership with Dr Lon Simonetti is to develop novel approaches to quantify plaque and identify elements of the atherosclerotic process that confers risk for progression. An important focus of the project is to develop novel contrast agents for molecular imaging of plaque inflammation. This contrast agent imaging component is being developed in collaboration with Dr Parthasarathy and Dr Sen as part of a DHLRI Thematic program grant. The work on MR imaging the 11.7T Bruker system in the DHLRI as well as the recently acquired 9.4T wide bore Bruker.

Clinical: Core Laboratory for the Daily Dialysis and Nocturnal Dialysis Trials. These trials will compare end stage renal disease patients receiving three times a week dialysis with those receiving six times a week dialysis. The Daily Dialysis trial will enroll up to 250 patients whereas the Nocturnal Dialysis Trial will enroll up to 150. The primary outcome will be left ventricular mass as determined by cardiac MRI. Patients will receive two cardiac MRI scans, one at baseline and another 12 months later. Scans on these patients will be sent to the MRI Core Laboratory to be read and analyzed.

Core Research Equipments

OASIS-1 (Ohio Air Pollution Exposure System for Interrogation of Systemic Effects)
The “OASIS-1” mobile exposure system is one of a few available in the U.S. that has the capability to concentrate ambient particulate matter and allow particulate matter exposure in live animals on a chronic basis. The “OASIS-1” is currently located at one of the OSU Animal Facilities in Columbus, Ohio (Figure 1). The “OASIS-1” consists of 2 rooms: one houses the whole body exposure system and the other for mice vivarium with mice caging system and changing station. This Versatile Aerosol Concentration Enrichment System (VACES) whole-body exposure mouse chamber system at OSU is used to concentrate ambient particulate matter for animal exposure. This system will allow the inclusion of PM2.5 and PM0.1 particles in the exposures. The mice will be exposed to PM at nominal 10X ambient concentrations for 6 hours per day, 5 days per week. For the filtered air experiment, an identical system will be used, except that a HEPA filter at the inlet to the VACES will be installed to remove ambient particles. The entire system allows for simultaneous exposure of up to 64 mice to PM, with an equal number of filtered air exposed mice as controls (Figure).

Figure.  “OASIS-1” mobile trailer exposure system (VACES) (left) and 4 chambers with 32 wells of each for up to 64 mice exposed to PM with an equal number of filtered air exposed mice as controls (right).

Intravital Microscopy
The intravital microscopy resource in Dr. Rajagopalan’s laboratory is composed of FN1 Nikon microscope, CFI60 and CFI75 Infinity Optical System with removable filter turret for wavelength selection and 2 digital photometric cameras (Coolsnap CF 20MHz color 36-Bit, and Coolsnap HQ monochrome cameras). The MetaMorph software controls image acquisition, processing, storage, filter wheels, shutters, and cameras.