When not in lab I spend my time at my pottery wheel, mostly making messes, with my dog or exploring Kansas City with my boyfriend. I enjoy going to concerts and finding new restaurants around KC to try. I like going to First Fridays in the crossroad district to see local artists and people watch. I also find time to go camping with friends and get home to Colorado to go hiking every now and then.
Research Interests
The focus in our lab is looking at the mechanism of liver injury in different disease states. My current project is to elucidate the pathway by which early growth response factor-1 (egr-1) is upregulated during cholestatic liver disease. Previous work in our lab showed that egr-1 is upregulated after bile duct ligation (a model of cholestasis) and in primary mouse hepatocytes treated with bile acids. We also showed that egr-1 knock out mice develop less liver injury during cholestasis. The egr-1 knock out mice had reduced numbers of neutrophils in the liver and that the pro-inflammatory mediators, intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (mip-2), were reduced compared to bile duct ligated controls. Based on this work we hypothesized that bile acids, which accumulate during cholestasis, activates signaling pathway that leads to the upregulation of egr-1 during cholestasis. I have been using both in vitro and in vivo techniques as well as genetic and inhibitor models to elucidate the pathway(s) that are responsible for the induction of egr-1. I am also looking at the control of ICAM-1 and mip-2 during bile duct ligation and in hepatocytes after bile acid treatment. These studies could lead to the identification of drug targets for the treatment of cholestatic liver injury.
Contact Information
Katryn Allen
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics
The University of Kansas Medical Center
MS1018
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, KS 66160
Phone: (913) 588-8999
Fax: (913) 588-7501
E-Mail: kallen@kumc.edu
updated 6/24/09
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