Endothelium

Dr. Raouf Khalil is an MD PhD who is very interested in scientific research. After receiving his MD, he joined the graduate school and received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Miami, Florida. After doing postdoctoral training at Harvard University, he joined the faculty at University of Mississippi Medical Center. He then moved back to Harvard where he is now Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Dr. Khalil has long been interested in vascular physiology and cell biology. The main focus of his research laboratory is to study the cellular mechanisms of vascular tone under physiological conditions and the changes in these mechanisms in pathological conditions such as coronary artery disease, salt-sensitive hypertension, hypertension in pregnancy, preeclampsia, pulmonary hypertension, and chronic venous disease. State-of-the-art equipment to study various aspects of the vascular system at the whole animal, tissue, cellular, and molecular level are available in his laboratory. Powerful techniques such as physiological bioassays, radioimmunoassays, mRNA and protein analysis, cell and organ culture, immunofluorescence, digital imaging and confocal microscopy are also available. Dr. Khalil's research projects include investigation of endothelium-dependent mechanisms of vascular relaxation, calcium-dependent and calcium-independent mechanisms of vascular and uterine contraction, role of protein kinases and phosphatases in vascular and uterine smooth muscle contraction, mechanisms of sex differences in vascular tone, the role of endothelin in salt-sensitive hypertension, and the role of matrix metalloproteinases in hypertension in pregnancy, preeclampsia, pulmonary hypertension, and chronic venous disease.

1. The Endothelium-Dependent Nitric Oxide-cGMP Pathway Fabiola Zakia Mónica, Ka Bian and Ferid Murad 2. Transcriptional and Post Translational Regulation of eNOS in the Endothelium David J.R. Fulton 3. Endothelial Small and Intermediate Conductance K Channels and Endothelium-Dependent Hyperpolarization as Drug Target in Cardiovascular Disease Ralf Köhler, Aida Oliván-Viguera and Heike Wulff 4. Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids and 20-Hydroxyeisosatetraenoic Acid on Endothelial and Vascular Function John D Imig 5. Endothelin-1 Biosynthesis, Signaling and Vasoreactivity Martin Houde, Louisane Desbiens and Pedro D’Orléans-Juste 6. Endothelium-Dependent Contractions: Prostacyclin and Endothelin-1, Partners in Crime? Oliver Baretella and Paul M. Vanhoutte 7. Communication Through Gap Junctions in the Endothelium Kjestine Schmidt, Rainer Windler and Cor De Wit 8. Molecular Signaling Pathways Controlling Vascular Tube Morphogenesis and Pericyte Induced Tube Maturation in 3D Extracellular Matrices Stephanie L.K. Bowers, Pieter R. Norden and George E. Davis 9. Stress-Induced Premature Senescence of Endothelial and Endothelial Progenitor Cells Michael S. Goligorsky and Karen Hirschi 10. Estrogens and Coronary Artery Disease: New Clinical Perspectives Matthias R. Meyer and Matthias Barton 11. Mechanisms of Endothelial Dysfunction in Hypertensive Pregnancy and Preeclampsia José S. Possomato-Vieira and Raouf A. Khalil