East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Aaron Polichnowski was recently awarded a $601,092 grant from the National Institutes of Health to research a possible link between blood vessel function and hypertension – particularly salt-sensitive hypertension.
Polichnowski, a professor in the Quillen College of Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and expert in renal hemodynamics (dynamics of blood flow in the kidneys), will conduct the study in partnership with Augusta University’s Dr. David Mattson. Mattson is a professor and Chair of Physiology at Augusta University and an expert in inflammation, kidney disease and hypertension.
Together they will look at what role Tcells, an immune cell, may play in contributing to the dysfunction of blood vessels in the kidneys, leading to hypertension and kidney damage.
For Polichnowski, this research is especially important given the prevalence of hypertension in Northeast Tennessee and Appalachia.
“Statistics show about half of the U.S. population has hypertension, and that’s even more prevalent in this region,” said Polichnowski. “It means a lot to be focusing on a disease that affects this region.
“I grew up in East Tennessee, I graduated from ETSU in 1999, and I am proud to work at ETSU and to be focusing on something that could, down the road, lead to new clinical or therapeutic approaches that can treat hypertension and kidney disease,” he said.
Polichnowski said it’s a special feeling to be bringing in funding from the NIH to his lab, a lab at a school he is proud to call his alma mater.
“It means a lot to work at ETSU,” he said. “I’m proud that we’re bringing NIH grant funding to work on these issues. I think that’s really important and highlights, not only my lab, but the environment here at the Quillen College of Medicine and ETSU.”
To learn more about the Quillen College of Medicine, visit etsu.edu/com.