9320158 Weyhenmeyer Angiotensin is a small protein hormone that is important in regulating cardiovascular, renal, endocrine, and nervous system activities. Although angiotensin is principally known for its role in the regulation of blood pressure and thirst, there is now evidence indicating that this protein is involved in variety of central nervous system processes, including cell to cell transmission, learning and memory, and cell growth and development. The recent identification of multiple types of angiotensin binding proteins or receptors have led to the suggestion that functional specificity may reside at the level of individual receptor subtypes. Dr. Weyhenmeyer will identify the cellular and molecular features of individual angiotensin receptor subtypes to determine which of these receptors are specifically involved in the growth and development of nerve cells. to accomplish this, he will grow cells in culture that express different angiotensin receptor subtypes and expose them to a battery of growth factors. Each of growth factors is likely to cause a neuronal response. Dr. Weyhenmeyer will determine how the different growth factors interact with the different receptor subtypes to induce distinct neuronal responses such as proliferation, survival, differentiation and neurite extension. Understanding how individual angiotensin receptor subtypes mediate their activity at the level of the cell should not only provide important insights into their role in controlling important physiological behaviors such as blood pressure and thirst but may also open new perspectives in the complex field of brain development, and perhaps, cell regeneration. ***
