BME Lecture: Sanjeev G. Shroff, University of Pittsburgh

Title: Relaxin: Cardiovascular Actions and Theraputic Potential

Abstract: This presentation will focus on discussing our relaxin-related work over the past decade, covering basic physiology to potential therapeutic applications: (1) Although our original focus was on relaxin’s vascular actions in the context of our surprising discovery that relaxin’s vascular actions are not confined to females; males respond equally robustly. (2) Furthermore, relaxin-induced vascular geometric remodeling, and not compositional remodeling, contributes to increased vascular passive compliance under physiological conditions. We provided the first evidence for local relaxin ligand-receptor expression and function in arteries. (3) We have been examining relaxin’s cardiac actions and therapeutic potential in the context of two pathologies -- relaxin-induced left atrial remodeling and suppression of atrial fibrillation (Circ. Res. 113:313- 321, 2013) and relaxin-induced left ventricular remodeling and associated functional benefits in the setting of diastolic dysfunction.

Biography:  Sanjeev Shroff is a Distinguished Professor and the Gerald E. McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the chair of the Department of Bioengineering. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh in April 2000, Shroff was a faculty member at the University of Chicago for 17 years in the Department of Medicine (Cardiology Section). Trained as an electrical engineer (with a bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and a master of engineering from McMasterUniversity, Hamilton, Canada), Shroff obtained his doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.