Peking University, Nov. 13, 2010: A research team from PKU School of Basic Medical Sciences published a joint invited review titled “Regulation of the Pulmonary Circulation in the Fetus and Newborn” in the October issue of Physiological Reviews, a most authoritative magazine in physiology, with the College of Medicine, University of Illinois. (Gao Y, Raj JU. Physiol Rev, 90:1291-1335, 2010)

This review gives a systematical introduction about the recent research progress in the changes of development and related regulation mechanism of the pulmonary circulation in the fetus and newborn, as well as what application and mechanism the progress has to the treatment of the pulmonary hypertension in the newborn. It analyzed that the normal development of the pulmonary circulation in the fetus and newborn has a critical impact on the function of gas exchange in the lung of after birth. And the process is controlled by a complex combine of genes and various active substances, the dysfunction of which could lead to many kinds of lung diseases such as the pulmonary hypertension in the newborn, whose incidence rate is about 2‰ and mortality rate relatively high.

In addition, this review introduces in detail the findings of the collaborative research between the Laboratory of Vascular Pathophysiology in the charge of one author of the review, Prof. Gao Yuansheng from PKU School of Basic Medical Sciences and the lab in which the other author, Prof. Raj from College of Medicine, UCLA (currently at College of Medicine, University of Illinois), works. Included is the study of the signaling pathway of nitric oxide-guanylate kinase, contributory to vasodilation, and that of Rho kinase, contributory to vasocontractility, both of which are very important to the pulmonary circulation in the fetus and newborn.

According to the research, the weakening of the former signaling pathway and the excessive enhancing of the latter could promotes the development of the pulmonary hypertension in the newborn, and these two signaling pathways have a complex relationship of mutual restraints. The importance of the above research lies in new revelations of the regulation mechanism of the function of pulmonary circulation and the treatment of the pulmonary hypertension in the newborn as well.

Thanks to the collaborative work of the two labs, the past six years have seen nine related papers jointly published in top physiology magazines, including Am J Phyiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, Br J Pharmacol, and Pflügers Archiv - Eur J Physiol.

Extended Reading: More information about Prof. Gao Yuansheng.

Translated by: Chen Long

Edited by: Jacques

Source: PKU News (Chinese)