Models of Study
Human: The laboratory has permission to use human tissues (both normal and NASH) for the studies listed above. This is made possible by the NIH sponsored repository existing at The University of Minnesota and at the University of Pittsburgh.
Laboratory mice: The lab uses knockout mice for several genes of interest. The primary wildtype mice are from a C57BL6/J background purchased from the Jackson laboratories. The laboratory has recently procured a mouse colony for TRPV4 null mice and has initiated its breeding. Since the lab explores disease development in an underlying condition of obesity, it uses diet induced obese (DIO) mice that are fed with either high fat diet (60 kcal % or 45 kcal%) or their corresponding lean controls (LC; 10 kcal%). These mice are then exposed to various environmental toxins to study the development of NASH. The model has been chosen since these mice do not develop nonalcoholic steatohepatitis on their own. Several other NASH models are also used to study the molecular mechanisms of NASH, that include the methionine choline deficient diet model and carbon tetrachloride induced fibrosis model.
