Associate
Professor of Medicine
Cellular and Molecular Physiology
dbeasley@tuftsmedicalcenter.org
We are interested
in how innate immunity contributes to early inflammatory
events in atherosclerosis. Smooth muscle cells constitute
the primary cell type in healthy arteries, and in their
normal differentiated, contractile state they regulate
vascular tone and blood pressure. These cells also
have remarkable phenotypic plasticity, and under dramatic
phenotypic changes, as a prelude to the disease process,
including increased proliferation and synthesis of pro
inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and extracellular
matrix proteins. Although these events begin in early
childhood and precede lesion development by several decades,
they set the stage for later devastating diseases such
as coronary artery disease and stroke. Our current
research is using transgenic mouse models to determine
how Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 contribute to phenotypic
switching in smooth muscle cells, and to arterial inflammation
and lesion formation in vivo.
Visit the Beaseley research website |
