Research Interests
1) Using mice as a model, trying to understand the mechanisms of the maturation of hepatic transporters during development. Hepatic transporters play important roles in the uptake or efflux of many chemicals in the body, including drugs, bile acids, phospholipids and so on. Abnormal expressions of these transporters may disrupt the balance of the transporting system and cause various types of diseases. The ontogenic pattern of the expression of liver transporters is programmed during fetal development. For example, right after birth, several transporters in the liver were low before birth, but then significantly up-regulated right after delivery which even reached or exceeded the adult level. Maternal hormones (such as prolactin and several sex hormones), as well as maternal and fetal bile acids, may orchestrate the expression of fetal liver transporters during pregnancy and lactation, through the activation of several liver-enriched nuclear receptors in fetus. It will be quite exciting to me, to find out how this mysterious “time clock” works, in terms of the liver transporters expression during development.
2) The effects of pregnancy and lactation on the expression of maternal hepatic transporters and drug-metabolizing enzymes. Pregnancy and lactation place a big stress on the mother’s body, which activate multiple pathways and consequently change the expression profile of several transporters and enzymes in the liver and GI tract. Such change may have compensatory effects against the stress from pregnancy and lactation. It is also very interesting to me to study the gene regulation of these elements during such stress periods.
Contact Information
Yue Cui
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics
The University of Kansas Medical Center
MS1018
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, KS 66160
Phone: (913) 588-9248
Fax: (913) 588-7501
E-Mail: ycui@kumc.edu
updated 2/07/07
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The University of Kansas Medical Center