Welcome to The Jacobson Lab
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Jeffrey R. Jacobson, MD Principal Investigator, Institute for Personalized Respiratory Medicine Associate Professor of Pulmonary Medicine |
Derangements in lung vascular permeability, particularly in the context of acute inflammatory lung injury (ALI) and ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI), represent a common yet difficult clinical problem associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Regrettably, effective therapies are currently not available and novel molecular targets and therapeutic strategies are desperately needed. The statins are a class of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors used clinically to lower serum lipid levels and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with coronary artery disease. However, not all beneficial effects of statins can be attributed to cholesterol lowering with mounting evidence suggesting a favorable impact in a variety of clinical disorders. Accordingly, Dr. Jacobson's research has hypothesized that, via complex effects on endothelial cells, simvastatin offers a novel therapeutic, barrier- protective strategy for ALI/VALI. Consistent with this hypothesis, he has recently reported that simvastatin promotes EC barrier function in vitro and in vivo, even in the presence of edemagenic agonists, a finding with dramatic significance with respect to clinical conditions characterized specifically by increased vascular permeability such as ALI/VALI. Further characterization of these effects, the underlying mechanisms by which simvastatin augments EC barrier function, and relevance to other clinical conditions including ischemia-reperfusion lung injury, are the focus of Dr. Jacobson's ongoing research.