This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. My research training at the graduate and post-doctoral levels focused on the influence of the autonomic nervous system and renal function in the control of arterial blood pressure. I am skilled in the placement of indwelling arterial catheters for the direct measurement blood pressure and in the placement of ureteral catheters for the measurement of urinary output in rats. When I first arrived at UNK I investigated a non-invasive way to control mild hypertension (Steele, JE. Retention of relative grip effort for at-home isometric exercise. Trans. Nebraska Acad. Sci. 24: 81-88, 1997). More recently my research has focused the effectiveness of various over-the-counter nutritional supplements. I investigated the influence of androstenedione on cardiovascular function in rats and the response of the subjects to novel (water immersion) stress (Steele, JE. Influence of androstenedione on sedentary female rats. Trans. Nebraska Acad. Sci. 27: 17-24, 2001). I have also supervised several undergraduate research projects investigating the effectiveness of over-the-counter nutritional supplements in humans. Many of these projects have required the collection of blood samples and analysis of those samples by colorimetric, ELISA, or radioimmunoassay technique. One of these research projects resulted in a publication in an undergraduate research journal (Hellman, AM, and KJ Brummer. Effect of a Dietary Supplement on Body Composition and Plasma hGH Following Exercise Challenge. J. Young Investigators, Issue 7, March 2003). My long-term research goals are to continue to investigate factors which influence the control of blood pressure and the roles of stress and exercise training in blood pressure regulation. My ideal research subject is the borderline hypertensive rat (BHR), the first generation off-spring of a spontaneously hypertensive rat and a Wistar-Kyoto rats. The BHR will not spontaneously develop hypertension but is sensitive to various environmental stressors. Exercise training seems to prevent the BHR from developing hypertension even when subjected to environmental stressors. The effects of nutritional supplements in the BHR have not yet been investigated. The animal care facilities in Bruner Hall of Science on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus have historically been quite poor, and, coupled with the recent 'delayed maintenance' of the building, have prevented me from maintaining an on-going research program. The BRIN supplement has allowed us to renovate space in Bruner Hall into a modern animal facility. While this renovation is not yet complete, I have been able to maintain an animal colony and begin some preliminary projects. The first project is to examine the influence of exercise training on the efficiency of enzyme repair mechanisms in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus. I have collected tissue samples (heart, liver, kidney, brain, and skeletal muscle) from 50 rats and am in the process of analyzing these tissues for glutathione, glutathione reductase, thioredoxin, thioredoxin reductase, and citrate synthase (in skeletal muscle only to verify effectiveness of training program). Furthermore, I have collected tissue for gene profiling via microarray analysis.
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