Lucinda McRobb awarded a Heart Foundation Travel grant

Lucinda McRobb, of the Gene Regulation Group, has been awarded a National Heart Foundation Travel grant enabling her to travel to New Orleans in Louisiana to present her research findings at the 2008 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

Dr McRobb's poster entitled, In vivo uncoupling of arterial calcification and inflammation in androgen-treated apolipoprotein E-null mice, explores the role of male sex hormones such as testosterone in the process of calcification of advanced atherosclerotic lesions.
Calcification of advanced atherosclerotic lesions is associated with an increase in cardiac events, such as heart attacks and strokes along with poorer outcomes in vascular procedures such as stent placement surgery and angioplasty (a surgical operation to clear a narrowed or blocked artery).
By using a working model, Dr McRobb was able to discover that the male sex hormone testosterone increases the rate at which atherosclerotic plaques calcify but does not affect the size of lesions or extent of inflammation.
"We predict that male sex hormones may promote certain aspects of atherosclerosis' Dr McRobb said ‘which may lead to an increased cardiovascular risk in men."
The 2008 AHA Scientific Sessions provided a forum for physicians, scientists, nurses and healthcare professionals to present and discuss the newest advances in clinical and basic science research. Current patterns of treatment, prevention and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease were reviewed through a series of seminars and programs.
Dr McRobb plans to use her research as a new direction for the development of possible therapies for sufferers of heart disease who are dominant among the numbers of people dying from a preventable cause, or at least as a valuable addition to current knowledge of this persistent killer.