Violeta Arsenescu, MD, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Kentucky
Room 561 Charles T. Wethington Building
Lexington, KY 40536-0200
Tel: 859-323-4933 ext 81538
e-mail: varse2@email.uky.edu
Academic Appointments:
• Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences
Education:
• MD, University of Medicine & Pharmacy Targu Mures, Romania
• Postdoctoral Fellow – Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences, University of KY
• PhD, Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
• Postdoctoral Fellow – Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, University of KY
Awards:
• Training Grant, Immunology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Training Grant, Oncology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Travel award - University of KY – Podium Presentation –DDW meeting 2008
•NIH T32 Training Grant, Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences, University of Kentucky
Specific Interest in Nutrition:
The crosstalk between environmental factors and adipose tissue immune response.
Research Interests:
Environmental factors play an important role in the development of metabolic syndrome and associated medical conditions. One receptor in particular, the aryl hydrocarbon, known as the dioxin receptor is the key mediator of the body’s response to endobiotics, dietary products and xenobiotic chemicals. My in-vitro and in-vivo studies have recently demonstrated that persistent activation of AhR receptor by dioxin-like ligands promoted differentiation of pre-adipocytes and mesenteric fat hypertrophy and inflammation. Despite this association with environmental toxins, this receptor is also an important mediator of immune response. In a mouse model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease - a chronic immune disease - we showed that moderate activation of AhR prevented the development of this disease. Interestingly, absence or chronic activation by food, smoking, and microbial by-products caused severe bowel inflammation. My research is currently focusing on the role of AhR in the crosstalk between adipose tissue and innate immune cells. We are conducting both animal and translational studies to understand how the environmental cues reprogram the adipose tissue metabolism and immune response. Deciphering the role of environmental obesogens could have broad implications in the treatment of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.
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