Genetics, Nephrology, Hypertension, and Vascular Injury
Head of the group
Prof. Dr. Friedrich C. Luft
The Department of Nephrology/Hypertension/Clinical Pharmacology, headed by Friedrich C. Luft, encompasses several research groups (Jens Jordan, Clinical Research Center; Wolf-Hagen Schunck, Eicosanoids; Dominik N. Müller, Helmholtz Fellow; Kai Schmidt-Ott, Emmy Noether Fellow) that are reported elsewhere in the MDC Research Report. Friedrich C. Luft’s group is interested in molecular and genetic mechanisms contributing to blood pressure regulation, cardiovascular, and renal diseases. Ralph Kettritz is pursuing mechanisms responsible for proteinase-3 (PR3) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) antibody-induced vasculitis. The neutrophil is the key cell in these diseases. He and his team recently showed that the major hisocompatibility complex HLA region largely explains genetic variance on PR3, that NB1 mediates surface expression of PR3, and that platelets can transfer receptors onto neutrophils.
Sylvia Bähring is pursuing the molecular genetics of autosomal-dominant brachydactyly and hypertension. She is elucidating a novel gene probably encoding for a micro-RNA. Volkmar Gross pursues blood pressure regulation and sympathetic nerve activity in several gene-deleted mouse models, and thereby utilizes state-of-the-art physiological techniques adapted to the 25 g conscious mouse. Anette Fiebeler uncovered hitherto fore unknown glucocorticoidmediated signaling via the mineralocorticoid receptor in vascular cells.