Dr Youguo Niu

I have been working with Prof. Dino Giussani in Fetal and Neonatal Physiology and in Developmental Programming. I have established procedures to study cardiac function ex vivo in several models of disease of remarkable size differences. I direct the Heart Laboratory at the Barcroft Centre, University of Cambridge and I have been teaching many undergraduate Part II students, PhD students, summer students and visiting fellows in the intricacies of the isolated Langendorff/working heart preparations. My research interests have three main themes.

Fetal hypoxia and developmental programming of heart disease.

The interaction between genetic make-up and environmental risk factors, such as smoking and obesity, promote a risk of heart disease. In addition, the concept of developmental programming has now become established. This states that a component of heart health and disease can be programmed before birth by the quality of the prenatal environment. The most common feature of complicated pregnancy, such as during preeclampsia or placental insufficiency, is fetal hypoxia. Over last 10 years, we have shown, in a variety of species, that prental hypoxia programmes caridiac dysfunction at both fetal and adulthood stage, and this programming process is secondary to oxidative stress. Therefore, we have been testing different antioxidant strategies to prevent the developmental programming of heart disease by chronic fetal hypoxia. The significance of my work has been well recognised by receiving one The SRI (Society of Reproductive Investigation) Presiden's Presenter's Award, two SRI Pfizer President’s Presenter’s Awards, and one Best New Investigator Poster Award at Annual Scientific Meeting for the Society of Reproductive Investigation.

Perinatal glucocorticoid treatment and developmental programming of heart disease.

In fetal development, a prepartum surge in glucocorticoids is necessary to prepare the fetus for the transition from intrauterine life to extrauterine life. This prepartum surge has many maturational effects upon several organ systems in the fetus, including the lungs, liver, kidneys and gut. In particular, the maturation of the fetal lungs is highly glucocorticoid dependent. Therefore, glucocorticoid treatment has been widely used to treat or prevent chronic lung disease (CLD) in premature infants. However, in addition to the beneficial effects of glucocorticoids on lung maturation, they have also been shown to have adverse side-effects on cardiovascular function. We have shown that postnatal treatment with synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, programmes cardiac dysfunction at adulthood and this detrimental effect is prevented by combined antioxidant treatment of vitamins C and E. This work has been published in Journal of Physiology. Currently, I am investigating whether combining chronic fetal hypoxia with antenatal glucocorticoid treatment will programme heart disease in later life, and working on the potential intervention strategy.

Cardiac metabolism and developmental programming of heart disease.

Since cardiac metabolism is critically linked to cardiac function, I have become interested in whether there is a link between cardiac metabolism and developmental programming of heart disease. To investigate this will integrate my experience and expertise in determining cardiac function and cardiac metabolism with an established model of developmental programming of heart disease by prenatal hypoxia. This line of research will provide a new insight in the developmental programming of heart disease by adverse prenatal environment.

Collaborators

Prof. Dino Giussani