University of Virginia

General Clinical Research Center
University Hospital Health Systems
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Box 800787
Charlottesville, VA 22908

Web site: http://gcrc.med.virginia.edu

Grant No. M01 RR00847

Special Assays, Services, or Tests

Pituitary and steroidal hormone assays
Ultrasensitive chemiluminescent assays for GH, LH, FSH, cortisol, TSH

Special Resources, Instruments, or Services

Computerized protocol application program and center data management program

Computerized sleep and wake analysis: 24-hour remote blood sampling capability, video monitoring

Custom-designed neuroendocrine pulsatility analytical software

Exercise physiology laboratory including treadmill, bicycle ergometer, echocardiograph and exercise Doppler, metabolic measures, biochemistry measures, body composition assessment, regional distribution of body fat

Major Areas of Investigation

Aging: Physical training and sex steroid replacement in older persons; physiologic basis of decline in reproductive and growth hormone axes with aging.

Cancer: Immunotherapy of malignant melanoma; chemoradiation in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Cardiovascular Diseases: Hypertension.

Diabetes: Risks and preventions; meal frequency and metabolic control in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus; placental GH and development of retinopathy or nephropathy during pregnancy in women with type 1 diabetes; effects of hypoglycemia on retinal function and cognition.

Endocrinology: Puberty, reproduction, and growth; regulation of skeletal muscle protein turnover; estrogen negative feedback in postpartum lactational amenorrhea; feedback actions of cortisol on ACTH release; feedback actions of testosterone on LH release; GH administration and gonadal function; somatostatin infusion and GH release; spontaneous and stimulated GH secretion and body composition measurements; GH response to varying doses of GH-releasing hormone; effect of GH-releasing peptides and analogues on GH secretion; GH and LH secretion as influenced by ethnicity.

Exercise and Physiology: Effects of diet and 24-hour GH release and GH response to acute exercise; effects of age, gender, and exercise intensity on GH release and substrate utilization; regulation of skeletal muscle protein; time course of adaptations to exercise training; effects of arginine and GH-releasing hormone-II infusion on GH release; GH and physical training in older persons; feedback mechanisms subserving exercise-induced GH release; core temperature and GH release during exercise; exercise responses in lean and obese adults; continuous versus intermittent exercise on GH and metabolic responses.

Growth and Development: Alterations in body composition and growth at puberty; effects of pubertal timing; transient alterations in growth, body composition, and regional body fat distribution during initiation of hormonal therapies in children; impact of dietary interventions in puberty.

Immunology and Allergy: Environmental factors and colonizing yeast or fungi; effects of exposure to house dust mite antigen on the skin of patients with topical dermatitis, and on asthmatic reactivity.

Immunology and Allergy: Environmental factors and colonizing yeast or fungi; effects of exposure to house dust mite antigen on the skin of patients with topical dermatitis, and on asthmatic reactivity.

Metabolism: Hormonal regulation of skeletal muscle metabolism; effect of testosterone, GH, IGF-I, arginine, adenosine on muscle protein metabolism; effects of hyperinsulinemia on protein phosphorylation and amino acid infusion.

Neurology: Impact of osmolality on cognition in Alzheimer's disease.

Nutrition: Micronutrient deficiencies as potential markers of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in obese adolescents.

Sleep Studies: Mechanisms of upper airway obstruction in children with obstructive sleep apnea; treatment of sleep apnea by removal of lateral pharyngeal fat pad; sleep abnormalities in acromegaly.

Women's Health: IGF-I feedback in aging women; role of estradiol in maintaining follicular phase GnRH frequency and the regulation of luteal GnRH frequency; polycystic ovary disease; hypothalamic amenorrhea; insulin secretion in the immediate postpartum period; regulation of GH throughout the menstrual cycle and in postmenopausal women with and without estrogen replacement; the menopausal reproductive axis.

Contact Information

For information about this GCRC and how to access its resources, please contact:

Virginia Commonwealth University

General Clinical Research Center
Virginia Commonwealth University
Box 980155
Richmond, VA 23298

Web site: www.vcuhealth.org/crc

Grant No. M01 RR00065

Special Assays, Services, or Tests

Indirect calorimetry
Intermediary metabolite measurements of metabolic and nutritional status
Plasma catecholamine assays, serum metabolites, bone markers
Radioimmunoassays and ELISA assays of peptide and steroid hormones and of peptides as markers of physiologic processes

Special Resources, Instruments, or Services

Cardiac ultrasound
Case exercise testing system
EEG for sleep monitoring
GC mass spectrometer
HPLC
Metabolic cart
Osmometer, fluorometers, beta and gamma counters
Tilt table
Treadmill

Major Areas of Investigation

Bone Disorders: Vitamin D metabolism after gastric bypass surgery; steroids and osteoblast function; steroid-induced osteoporosis.

Cardiology: Endothelial function and aging; oxygen uptake in heart failure; aortic wave velocity and cardiovascular disease; exercise and endothelial function.

Endocrinology: Polycystic ovary syndrome; insulin and steroidogenesis; glucocorticoids and osteocalcin; androgenic hyperplasia in acromegaly; adrenomedullary secretion; steroids and hypertension; aging and hypogonadism.

Gastroenterology: Hepatitis C; alcoholic hepatitis; nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; chronic active hepatitis; adenomatous polyps and dietary intervention; primary biliary cirrhosis; transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts; liver transplantation; dietary replacement in pancreatitis.

Genetic Diseases: Hereditary deafness; genetics of depression; genetics of alcoholism.

Hematology and Oncology: Modulation of protein kinase C in combination chemotherapy; apoptotic agents in malignancies; antisickling agents; breast cancer; microcirculation and pain in sickle cell disease.

Immunology: Immunotherapy in recurrent abortions; immune response and AIDS; psychoneuroimmunology in AIDS.

Infectious Diseases: Fungal meningitis; treatment of systemic fungal infections; AIDS treatment; HIV infection and adrenal function.

Metabolism: Insulin resistance; cholesterol metabolism; plasma lipoproteins and liver; free fatty acids in diabetes; protein kinetics and aging; control of hepatic glucose output; vascular permeability and insulin; muscle fiber composition and phospholipids and insulin resistance; weight loss and substrate metabolism; exercise training and postprandial lipemia; resistance training and insulin resistance; peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha.

Nephrology: Prehypertension in African Americans; dietary potassium and hypertension; pharmacokinetics in chronic renal disease; pancreaticorenal transplantation.

Neurology: Ornithine transcarbamoylase deficiency in migraines; new diagnostic methods in epilepsy.

Obesity: Portal vein studies; leptin pulsatility; ghrelin and gastric bypass surgery; genetics of obesity.

Obstetrics and Gynecology: Luteal phase defects and infertility; hormonal response to intravenously and intramuscularly administered Pergonal; gonadotropins in menopause; preeclampsia; gestational diabetes mellitus.

Pediatrics: Obesity and African American children; hypophosphatemic rickets; HIV chronic renal failure; growth failure; hypoparathyroidism; pseudohypoparathyroidism; relationship between dietary intake and response to growth hormone.

Pharmacology: Methadone kinetics; nicotine kinetics; HIV/opiate interactions; aging and acetylcholine kinetics.

Psychiatry: Endocrine function in depression; schizophrenic disorders; aggression and central serotonergic function; cocaine withdrawal and fetal stress; nicotine discrimination; readiness training in substance abuse; pet therapy; stress and forgiveness in marriage.

Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine: Sedatin withdrawal; insulin treatment.

Surgery: Living-donor liver transplantation; hepatocellular liver transplantation; gastrointestinal hormones after gastric bypass; total parenteral nutrition and cell cycle kinetics in cancer; exercise therapy in cardiac transplantation; chronic wound healing.

Contact Information

For information about this GCRC and how to access its resources, please contact: