Profile of Klaus Ballanyi, PhD
Professor
232B Heritage Medical Research Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2S2
Tel: 780.492.8235
Fax: 780.492.1308
Education
- PhD, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Research
Central respiratory depression constitutes a major clinical problem of infancy. Treatment of newborns with prostaglandins or opiates as well as severe hypoxia depress the medullary neuronal network that mediates breathing movements. Disturbed respiratory network function is also likely involved in sudden infant death. Using in vitro models of perinatal rodents, we wish to analyze the cellular mechanisms of drug-induced and endogeneous respiratory depression. We will combine electrophysiological recording of membrane potentials and currents with digital imaging of intracellular signalling factors in rhythmogenic "pre-Bötzinger Complex" respiratory neurons.
The aim of the research is to develop a novel pharmacological strategy to treat respiratory diseases. Based upon our current results, we will concentrate on clinically-applicable drugs that block inwardly-rectifying K+ channels of the pre-Bötzinger Complex neurons via the cAMP-protein kinase-A pathway.
Selected Publications
- Control of Breathing by "Nerve Glue"
- Neuron type-specific effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in rat superficial dorsal horn and their relevance to "central sensitization"
- Dependence on extracellular Ca2+/K+ antagonism of inspiratory centre rhythms in slices and en bloc preparations of newborn rat brainstem.
- High sensitivity to neuromodulator-activated signaling pathways at physiological [K+] of confocally imaged respiratory center neurons in on-line-calibrated newborn rat brainstem slices.
- Reversal by phosphodiesterase-4 blockers of in vitro apnea in the isolated brainstem-spinal cord preparation from newborn rats.
- Preparing for the first breath: prenatal maturation of respiratory neural control.
- Optical assessment of motoneuron function in a "twenty-four-hour" acute spinal cord slice model from fetal rats.
- Protective role of neuronal KATP channels in brain hypoxia.
- Intracellular pH and KATP channel activity in dorsal vagal neurons of juvenile rats in situ during metabolic disturbances.
- Contribution of Ca2+-dependent conductances to membrane potential fluctuations of medullary respiratory neurons of newborn rats in vitro.
- Dynamic recording of cell death in the in vitro dorsal vagal nucleus of rats in response to metabolic arrest.
