Zoltan P. Arany

Department of Medicine Cardiovascular Institute
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Center for Life Sciences Building, Room 906
3 Blackfan Circle
Boston. MA 02115
Tel: (617) 735-4252
Fax: (617) 735-4207
Email: zarany@bidmc.harvard.edu

Web Page: The Arany Lab Page

The lab is interested in the gene regulatory pathways that control cardiovascular metabolism. The heart and skeletal muscle are highly metabolically active tissues, and their rates of energy consumption, choice of substrates, and method of catabolism can vary widely. Aberrant generation or use of energy in these tissues leads to a great number of diseases, including diabetes, myopathy, and heart failure.

Our lab has focused on a small family of transcriptional regulators, the PGC-1 co-activators, which powerfully control numerous metabolic programs in different tissues, including the robust activation of mitochondrial biogenesis and function. Recently, we demonstrated that PGC-1 also regulates angiogenesis, thereby co-regulating neo-vascularization (oxygen delivery) with mitochondrial activity (oxygen consumption). We are taking multidisciplinary approaches, ranging from molecular biology and high-throughput genomics to cell biology and mouse physiology, to understanding how PGC-1s and other genetic regulators integrate metabolic homeostasis with vascular homeostasis in key metabolic tissues like heart and skeletal muscle.

References:

Arany, Z.*, S.-Y. Foo, Y. Ma, J. Ruas, A. Bommi-Reddy, G. Girnun, M. Cooper, D. Laznik, J. Chinsomboon, S. Rangwala, K. H. Baek, A. Rosenzweig, and B.M. Spiegelman*. (2008) “HIF-independent regulation of VEGF and angiogenesis by the transcriptional coactivator PGC-1α.” Nature. 451: 1008-13. *co-corresponding authors PMID: 18288196
Arany Z. PGC-1 Coactivators and Skeletal Muscle Adaptations in Health and Disease. Current Opinions in Genetics and Development. 2008. 18: 426-34. PMID: 18782618
Shoag J, Arany Z. (2009) Regulation of Hypoxia-Inducible Genes by PGC-1α. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. Nov 30. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 19948845
Chinsomboon J, Ruas J, Gupta RK, Thom R, Shoag J, Rowe G, Sawada N, Raghurama S, and Arany Z (2009) The Transcriptional Coactivator PGC-1α Mediates Exercise-Induced Angiogenesis in Skeletal Muscle. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Dec 15;106(50):21401-6. PMID: 19966219

For a complete listing of publications on PubMed, click here.

BBS webpage updated 5/15/2010