Bradford G. Hill, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Center for Diabetes and Obesity Research
University of Louisville Louisville, KY

Research Interests:

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are part of normal metabolism and play prominent roles in cardiovascular (patho)physiology. These reactive species and their secondary products (e.g., oxidized lipids) covalently modify proteins, thereby modulating enzyme function or eliciting redox signaling. Mitochondria, in particular, are both sources and targets of these reactive species and are themselves critical regulators of myocardial and vascular injury. Therefore, the general goal of ongoing studies in our laboratory is to understand how mitochondrial damage due to oxidants regulates cardiovascular health and disease. Specifically, we are focusing on how diabetes affects the function and physiology of mitochondria, with an emphasis on their role in causing myocardial insulin resistance. This approach involves the use and development of techniques to monitor cellular bioenergetics in the heart and vasculature.  The long-term objective is to apply knowledge gained from these studies to cultivate new understanding of how to target mitochondria or mitochondria-related signaling to prevent or ameliorate cardiovascular diseases caused by the diabetic phenotype.

Representative publications:

Hill BG, Dranka BP, Zou LY, Chatham JC, and Darley-Usmar VM. Importance of the bioenergetic reserve capacity in response to cardiomyocyte stress induced by 4-hydroxynonenal. Biochem J 424(1):99–107, 2009.

Hill BG, Awe SO, Vladykovskaya E, Ahmed Y, Liu SQ, Bhatnagar A, and Srivastava S.  Myocardial ischemia inhibits mitochondrial metabolism of 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal. Biochem J 417(2): 513–524, 2009.

Jones SP, Zachara NE, Ngoh GA, Hill BG, Teshima Y, Bhatnagar A, Hart GW, and Marban E. Cardioprotection by N-acetylglucosamine linkage to cellular proteins.  Circulation 117:1172–1182, 2008.