Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2001

Mentor: Robert L. Johnson, Jr., M.D.

Department: Internal Medicine / Pulmonary

Room number: H8.120

Mail Code: 9034

Phone number: 8-3426

E-mail: Robert.Johnson@utsouthwestern.edu

Project title: Nitric oxide production by the lung during exercise in normal subjects

and patients with lung disease

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0290 04300

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

The production of nitric oxide by alveolar endothelium is believed to increase from rest and exercise; this relationship may be altered by lung diseases. Most of the nitric oxide produced in the lung is carried away by pulmonary blood, while a small fraction is carried away by ventilation. By administering an inhaled bolus of nitric oxide and measuring changes in its concentration at the mouth, one can calculate the alveolar production of nitric oxide. A summer project is proposed here to: a) determine non-invasively the relationships of alveolar nitric oxide production to oxygen uptake and cardiac output during graded exercise in normal subjects; and b) test the hypothesis that chronic inflammatory lung diseases such as interstitial fibrosis and sarcoidosis increase nitric oxide production, while pulmonary vascular diseases decrease nitric oxide production.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

2000, Chad Hansen, MS1, "Sarcoidosis Reduces Pulmonary Diffusing Capacity by Destroying Capillaries." Selected for presentation at the 39th Annual Medical Student Research Forum.

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