| Publications :: | Professor
of Pediatrics and Physiology Scientific Director: Children’s Foundation Research Center 
Dr. Black’s research focuses on an area of which little is currently
known: the absorption of fats from the diet by the small intestine
and their metabolism by the liver in the newborn and developing infant.
His research team is conducting studies on how fats are taken up by
the intestinal cell and processed and packaged for transport into
the bloodstream. They are also investigating how different types of
fat in the diet regulate genes in the small intestine and liver in
the infant. Dr. Black utilizes newborn piglets, as well as cultured
piglet intestinal cells, for these studies. The understanding of these
processes will allow the design of infant formulas to allow optimum
absorption and metabolism of dietary fats. This work has important
implications for the nutrition of premature and term newborn infants.
Dr. Black’s laboratory recently demonstrated for the first time
that apolipoprotein A-IV, a protein strongly induced by dietary fat
in newborn small intestine, plays a role in enhancing the absorption
of fat. This may represent an important mechanism for the absorption
of a high fat breast-milk diet in the newborn. Studies funded by the
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development are currently
underway to elucidate the mechanism of this enhancement of absorption,
as well as how the apolipoprotein A-IV gene is regulated in newborn
intestine. |
Leng, S, Lu, S, Yao, Y, Kan, Z, Morris, G, Stair, B, Cherny, M, Black, DD. Hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 mediates apolipoprotein A-IV transcriptional regulation by fatty acid in newborn swine enterocytes. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2007 Aug;293(2):G475-G483 Black, DD. What is the role of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator dysfunction in primary sclerosing cholangitis J Pediatr 2007 Sep;151(3):230-232 Leng S, Lu S, Yao Y, Kan Z, Morris GS, Stair BR, Cherny MA, Black DD. Hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 mediates apolipoprotein A-IV transcriptional regulation by fatty acid in newborn swine enterocytes. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2007; 293(2):G475-483 Black DD. Development and physiological regulation of intestinal lipid absorption. I. Development of intestinal lipid absorption: cellular events in chylomicron assembly and secretion. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2007; 293(3):G519-524 |
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