Rennolds Ostrom, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology

Dr. Ostrom’s lab seeks to understand how cells "pre-arrange" multiple signaling components in GPCR signal transduction cascades. His focus is on caveolae and lipid rafts as centers for such organization. “Our long-term goal is to understand how such compartmentation impacts cellular response in a physiological setting.“

Using molecular cloning, expression of cloned signaling proteins, and a variety of cell biological and biochemical approaches, Dr. Ostrom will examine signaling mechanisms of G protein-coupled receptors. He is interested in the organization of signaling microdomains in the plasma membrane, especially in lipid raft/caveolin-rich regions, in which various receptors, G-proteins and effectors, particularly certain isoforms of adenylyl cyclase, localize. Dr. Ostrom seeks to elucidate the impact of compartmentation on cellular responses with the goal of developing novel gene therapy strategies to modulate cellular responses through changes in expression of limiting components in the signaling pathways. Adenylyl cyclase is one such limiting component. Currently, he studies cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts, airway smooth muscle cells and pulmonary fibroblasts.

In other studies, Dr. Ostrom is accessing the release of nucleotides and activation of P2Y receptors in various cultured cell lines. He has found that virtually all cells are capable of releasing ATP in response to mild mechanical stimuli or other forces that cause membrane deformation. The mechanism of this release appears to be due, in part, to membrane channel conductance. The goal is to understand the physiological role of the autocrine/paracrine signaling that is initiated by cellular release of ATP.

Recent Publications

Ostrom RS, Naugle JE, Gregorian C, Hase M, Swaney JS, Insel PA, Brunton LL and Meszaros JG. Angiotensin II enhances adenylyl cyclase signaling via Ca2+/calmodulin. Gq-Gs cross-talk regulates collagen production in cardiac fibroblasts. J Biol Chem 278(27):24461-8, 2003.

Loomis WH, Namiki S, Ostrom RS, Insel PA and Junger WG. Hypertonic stress co-stimulates T cell IL-2 expression through a feedback mechanism involving ATP release and P2 receptor activation of p38 MAP kinase. J Biol Chem 278(7):4590-6, 2003.

Insel PA and Ostrom RS. Forskolin as a tool for examining adenylyl cyclase expression, regulation and G protein signaling. Cell Mol Neurobiol 23(3):305-14, 2003.

Ostrom RS, Rana BK and Insel PA. Stoichiometry of G Protein-coupled Receptor Signaling: Implications in the Genomic Era. Pharmaceutical News, 2003.

Ostrom RS, Liu X, Head BP, Gregorian C, Seasholtz TM and Insel PA. Localization of adenylyl cyclase isoforms and G protein-coupled receptors in vascular smooth muscle cells: expression in caveolin-rich and non-caveolin domains. Mol Pharmacol 62(4):983-92, 2002.

Ostrom RS. New determinants of receptor-effector coupling: trafficking and compartmentation in membrane microdomains. Mol Pharmacol 61(3):473-6, 2002.

For additional information about Dr. Ostrom visit http://ostrom.utmem.edu/

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