Assistant Professor
“Kidney stem cells and their implication for treating spontaneous hypertension”
19 S. Manassas St., Room 114
Refreshments will be provided.
Abstract Summary:
Spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is a commonly used animal model for studying human primary hypertension. However, the etiology of human primary hypertension remains unknown. Analysis of transcriptome profiles pinpointed kidney stem cell (KSC) reprogramming as candidate for encoding the development of hypertension in SHR. KSCs of normotension Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY-KSCs) express Oct3/4, which is diminished in SHR-KSCs. We found WKY-KSCs derived exosomes (WKY-Exo) blocked the development of hypertension in SHR. Notably, WKY developed hypertension and arterial stiffening due to treatment of SHR-Exo. Proteome profiling reveals the enrichment of pathways for elastic fiber assembling and blood vessel development in WKY-Exo vs SHR-Exo. Our findings reveal a kidney mechanism through which KSCs control the development of hypertension, offering novel targets for preventing and treating primary hypertension.
Brief Bio
Dr. Han received a M.D. degree from Harbin Medical University in China in 1985. And earned a Ph.D. degree from the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine in 1991. He was awarded an international fellowship grant and started his postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco mentored by Dr. Martin Spencer in 1991. Then, Dr. Han moved to Memphis to continue his postdoctoral training in the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, mentored by Dr. Russell Chesney. During his pre- and postdoctoral training, Dr. Han received several awards including National Young Scientists Award from the Department of Health of China in 1990, research Trainee Travel Award from Southern Society for Pediatric Research in 1994 and 1995, and Bea Gerber Award from Le Bonheur Club in 2000. In 2001, he was promoted to Assistant Professor and worked as a co-investigator with Dr. Chesney on taurine and taurine transporter and then worked with Dr. Darryl Quarles of Department of Medicine on FGF23 from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Han joined Dr. Sun’s lab in 2018 to start working on adult kidney stem cells and generated an entire nephron for the first time in vitro.