PRIMARY FACULTY

Rolf Bunger, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Anatomy, Physiology, & Genetics
 
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda MD 20814
Office: 301-295-3523
Fax: 301-295-1996
rbunger@usuhs.mil

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of Physiology and Biochemistry of the heart, brain, and circulation in health, disease. Reversible vs. irreversible cell/organ damage: cardiac stunning, hibernation, infarct, necrosis and apoptosis (programmed cell death). Linking molecular, cellular and systemic physiological mechanisms. Pursuit of interdisciplinary efforts to combine holistic and reductionistic approaches to elucidate cellular physiological and molecular mechanisms in health and disease. Develop the therapeutic potential of metabolic interventions as distinct from pharmacologically based signal transduction and molecular genetic engineering.
 
One of our ongoing efforts has been to improve therapeutic regimens currently used in heart lung bypass procedures and hemorrhagic shock. The fundamental concept is that it should be feasible to metabolically protect the myocardium as well as other high-energy-turnover tissues (brain, kidney, liver) and perhaps the organism as a whole using appropriate metabolic as opposed to traditional medical or pharmacological interventions. We are looking at metabolic strategies that can set cellular redox states and energy potentials in such away that the specific cell function becomes better sustainable and more robust during periods of acute stress such as hypoxemia, ischemia, reperfusion, catecholamine or other toxicities including humoral complement activation, oxidative stress and recovery there from. Currently we are focusing on two natural compounds that appear to satisfy, in part, these requirements: pyruvate, a non-receptor-linked glycolytic metabolite, and adenosine, a vasoactive ATP catabolite that serves also as precursor of the vital cellular adenylates and is a ligand at purinergic receptors throughout the body, heart and brain in particular.

Selected Publications

Resources