PRIMARY FACULTY

Joseph McCabe, Ph.D.
Professor
Anatomy, Physiology, & Genetics
 
4301 Jones Bridge Road
Bethesda MD 20814
Office: 301-295-3664
Fax: 301-295-1996
jmccabe@usuhs.mil

Our research focuses on the study of traumatic brain injury (TBI) arising from a multiple kinds of insults and the utility of "neuroprotection" primarily elicited by drug treatments. A direct brain injury model in anesthetized laboratory rats is used to study the impact of lateral fluid percussion brain injury upon the pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins in the Bcl-2 family in the context of treatment with progesterone (Yao et al., 2005), changes in proteasome function after TBI (Ceremuga et al., 2001, 2003; Yao et al., 2007, 2008), and a proteasome-related E3 ligase, Cullin-5 (Ceremuga et al., 2001, 2003; Yao et al., 2007, 2008). We have studied the utility of the drug, diazoxide, for organ damage and brain injury arising from hemorrhagic shock and cerebral hypoperfusion (stroke) and its impact upon neuroprotective, heat shock protein expression (O'Sullivan et al., 2007; O'Sullivan et al., 2008).
 
Current projects include continuing study of the role of diazoxide when it is administered as a 'post-treatment' for hemorrhagic shock and cerebral hypoperfusion, investigating the effect of treatment with the antimicrobial, ceftriaxone, as a neuroprotectant after rats are exposed to neurotoxins, investigating the effects of treatments with ceftriaxone and diazoxide after TBI, and studying the effects of the administration of N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate and glutamate carboxypeptidases inhibitors as neuroprotectants for nerve agent-induced brain injury. A new area of investigation is the role of neuroinflammation and complement activation in brain injury. In this case, the animal model is the mouse, and we are developing a new animal model for localized blast-induced brain injury. This work will eventually employ knockout mouse models (C5a deficient mice) to study the possible attenuation of injury.

Selected Publications

Ceremuga TE, Yao XL, McCabe JT (2001) Vasopressin-activated calcium-mobilizing (VACM-1) receptor mRNA is present in peripheral organs and the central nervous system (CNS) of the laboratory rat. Endocr Res 27(4):433-445.
 
Ceremuga TE, Yao XL, McCabe JT (2003) Cullin-5 is ubiquitous in the rat brain. Neurosci Lett 345:121-125.
 
O'Sullivan JC, Yao X-L, Alam H, McCabe JT (2007) Diazoxide, as a postconditioning and delayed preconditioning trigger, increases HSP25 and HSP70 in the central nervous system following combined hemorrhagic shock and cerebral stroke. J Neurotrauma 24:532-546.
 
O'Sullivan JC, Fu D, Alam H, McCabe JT (2008) Diazoxide preconditioning increases HSP25 and HSP70 in liver and kidney after combined hemorrhagic shock and stroke. J Surg Res 149:120-130.
 
Yao X, Liu J, McCabe JT (2007) Ubiquitin and ubiquitin-conjugated protein expression in the rat cerebral cortex and hippocampus following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Brain Res 1182:116-122.
 
Yao X, Liu J, McCabe JT (2008) Proteasome subunit expression and function in the rat cerebral cortex and hippocampus following traumatic brain injury (TBI). J Neurochem 104:353-363.
 
Yao XL, Liu J, Lee E, Ling GS, McCabe JT (2005) Progesterone differentially regulates pro- and anti-apoptotic gene expression in cerebral cortex following traumatic brain injury in rats. J Neurotrauma 22:656-668.

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