RESEARCH

Publications - 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009        

Presentations - 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009         

NAPRTCS The division has participated over the past two decades as a member of the North American Pediatric Renal Trials Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS).  Robert Wyatt is the center principal investigator for this registry that compiles important clinical data and outcomes for pediatric patients who have a kidney transplant, are on chronic dialysis, or have chronic renal insufficiency but have not yet progressed to dialysis or transplantation.

CKID  The division is presently enrolling eligible subjects in CKID, a prospective cohort study of kidney disease in children.  Deborah Jones is the site principal investigator and a member of the cardiovascular subcommittee for this NIH supported multicenter study (5U01DK066143-03).  The specific aims of this study are 1) to determine risk factors for progression of pediatric chronic kidney disease (CKD), 2) to examine the impact of CKD on neurocognitive development, 3) to examine the impact of CKD on risk factors for cardiovascular  disease, and 4) to examine the impact of CKD on growth.  As of January 1, 2007, seven subjects from the UTHSC are entered in the study.

End Organ Damage in Children with Primary Hypertension On October 1, 2005 Dr. Deborah Jones received a 5-year NIH K23-Mentored Patient Oriented Research Career Development Award, “End organ damage in children with primary hypertension” (K23HL08910-01A2).

Elucidating IgA Nephropathy through Genetic Studies of IgA1 Glycosylation Dr. Robert Wyatt is a coinvestigator on this study that is led by Dr. Jan Novak at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Ali Gharavi at Columbia University School of Medicine. Data from our 2008 paper "Aberrant IgA1 Glycosylation Is Inherited in Familial and Sporadic IgA Nephropathy" Gharavi et al. J Am Soc Nephrol 19: 1008-1014, 2008 contributed to the development ot this study.

CLINICAL FEATURES AND OUTCOME OF PEDIATRIC IgA NEPHROPATHY

For virtually his entire academic career Robert Wyatt has documented clinical features and outcome of pediatric patients with IgA nephropathy. In 1984 he published the first kidney survival data (time to progression to end stage renal disease) for adults in the United States with IgA nephropathy (Wyatt et al: Am J Kidney Dis 4: 192-200, 1984). This study incuded data for 24 pediatric patients, none of whom had progressed to end stage renal disease at the time of the report. Dr. Wyatt was an author on the 1994 report from the Southwest Pediatric Nephrology Study Group of 218 pediatric patients with IgA nephropathy that documented progression to end stage renal disease for 12. This study showed that as in adults, the degree of proteinuria at biopsy and findings of glomerular sclerosis on biopsy were associated with poor outcome. This link is to kidney survival data for the 97 pediatric patients diagnosed in Memphis from 1974 through 2004 (link).

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Since 1980 the UT College of Medicine has maintained a successful NIH-funded medical student research program with Dr. Solomon Solomon as the PI (2T35DK007405-21).  This grant has recently been extended through May 2010.  The T35 award supports stipends for 24 students per year.  In 2001 the UTHSC General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) began supporting 4 additional students per year.  The GCRC Medical Student Research Program is designed to enable medical students to engage in individualized research projects under the supervision of faculty investigators at the GCRC.  This program introduces medical students to the possibility of a career in research.  Awardees devote full-time effort to their research activity during a 3-month period.  In addition to the faculty preceptor, students also participate in a special seminar series that include:  (1) Principles of Scientific Investigation, (2) Working with Human Subjects, (3) Molecular Biology in Human Disease, (4) Research Ethics, and (5) Evaluation of Scientific Data.  This program is available to all undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Medicine.  Students participate during the summer option period (June-August).

In the summer of 2004, two students, Kim McGlothan and Quinisha Logan, undertook clinical research projects in the division of pediatric nephrology as part of the GCRC Medical Student Research Program.  Drs. Bruce Alpert and Jones mentored Ms. Logan’s project, “Measurement of vascular compliance in children with hypertension.” Drs. Deborah Jones and Robert Wyatt mentored Ms. McGlothan’s project, “Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in children after renal transplantation.”  This study has resulted in a poster presentation at the 2005 meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies/American Society of Pediatric Nephrology (ASPN) in Washington, D.C.  Ms. McGlothan was awarded a travel grant from the ASPN to attend the meeting. The study also resulted in the manuscript - McGlothan KR, Wyatt RJ, Ault BH, Hastings MC, Rogers T, DiSessa T, Jones DP: Predominance of nocturnal hypertension in pediatric renal allograft recipients. Pediatric Transplantation 10: 655-667, 2006

In the summer of 2005, Kerry Sharpe was supported by the GCRC Medical Student Research Program for her project, “Extension of pedigrees of patient with IgA nephropathy from Clay County, Kentucky.”  This work was a part of the multi-center IgA nephropathy program project, Familial IgA Nephropathy: Genetic and Metabolic Studies.  Ms. Sharpe participated in a field trip to Manchester, Kentucky to interview patients and family members who were having blood drawn for the larger NIH-supported project.  Investigators at Yale School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Columbia University who are trying to establish a genetic basis for the disease will use her work. An abstract based upon this work has been accepted for poster presentation at the 39th annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology[Sharpe K, Gharavi A, Julian BA, Woodford SY, Wyatt RJ: Familial IgA nephropathy (IgAN) in southeastern Kentucky].