Summary of Teaching Responsibilities:

Undergraduate: Lecturer in Anatomy for Paramedical Personnel (ANAT 204), Mentor to Directed Studies in Anatomy (ANAT 490) and Internship in Anatomy (ANAT 499).

Professional: Lecturer in Medical Human Gross Anatomy, Histology, and Biochemistry, Instructor in Medical Gross Anatomy Laboratory and Facilitator in Medical Patient Centered Learning.

Graduate: Lecturer in Cellular and Molecular Foundations of Biomedical Science (BIMD 500), Gross Anatomy (ANAT 513), Histology (ANAT 515) and Special Topics in Electron Microscopy (ANAT 591); Research Advisor for Master's and Doctoral students.

Research Interests:

The central research focus of the laboratory relates to microscopic analyses of cellular and extracellular components of the retina of the eye and glomerulus of the kidney. Basement membranes and the extracellular connective tissue matrix surrounding small blood vessels in these organs are of special interest. We are also focused on extracellular and cellular morphometric alterations that occur in these locations during aging and/or chronic exposure to high glucose (e.g. diabetes mellitus).

In vivo studies are carried out primarily on animal models of aging and diabetes including transgenic diabetic mice. In these investigations, light, fluorescence, and scanning and transmission electron microscopic morphometry are utilized to localize specific macromolecules and to describe morphological changes in experimental animals.

It is our hope that these studies will shed new light on retinal and renal problems related to aging, glucose toxicity and the sequelae of chronic hyperglycemia. Since upwards of 20 million persons are afflicted with diabetes in the U.S. alone, the possibility that therapeutic intervention may reduce the potential devastating effects of altered glucose metabolism is a hope of a large portion of the population. We would like to make a contribution to the realization of that hope.

Selected Publications:

• Carlson, E.C., R.C. Vari, J.L. Audette, M.A. Finke, and M.J. Ressler. Significant glomerular basement membrane thickening in hyperglycemic and normoglycemic diabetic prone BB Wistar rats. Anatomical Record. 2004. 281A: 1308–1318.
• Carlson, E.C. Ultrastructural Morphometry of Capillary Basement Membrane Thickness. 2005. In: Microvascular Research: Biology and Pathology (D. Shepro, ed.), Vol I, pp. 19–24. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
• Relling, D.P., L.B. Esberg, C.X. Fang, W.T. Johnson, E.J. Murphy, E.C.Carlson, J.T. Saari and J. Ren. High-fat diet-induced juvenile obesity leads to cardiomyocyte dysfunction and upregulation of Foxo3a transcription factor independent of lipotoxicity and apoptosis.. Journal of Hypertension. 2006. 24:549–561.
• Ebadi, M., H.M. Brown-Borg, S. Sharma, S.Shavali, H. El ReFaey and E.C. Carlson. Therapeutic efficacy of selegiline in neurodegenerative disorders and neurological diseases. Cancer Drug Targets. 2006. 7:1513–1529.
• Relling, D.P., L.B. Esberg, W.T. Johnson, E.J. Murphy, E.C. Carlson, J.T. Saari, and J. Ren. Dietary interaction of high fat and marginal copper deficiency on cardiomyocyte contractile function. Obesity. 2007. 15:1242–1257.
• Teiken, J.M., J.L. Audette, D.I. Laturnus, Z. Shirong, P.N. Epstein and E.C. Carlson. Podocyte loss in aging OVE26 diabetic mice. Anatomical Record. 2008. 291:114–121.
• Ren, J., J.R. Privratsky, X.Yang, F.Dong, and E.C. Carlson. Metallothionein alleviates glutathione depletion-induced oxidative cardiomyopathy in murine hearts (in press).
• Zheng, S., E.C. Carlson, Y.Huang, J.Xu, and P.N. Epstein. Podocyte specific over expression of the antioxidant metallothionein reduces diabetic nephropathy (in press).
• Carlson, E.C., D.I. Laturnus, J.M. Teiken, E.D. Kees, J.L. Audette, S. Zheng, and P.N. Epstein. Glomerular hypertrophy in aging OVE26 diabetic mice is accompanied by mesangial and endothelial cell proliferation; Podocytes numbers are reduced and exhibit significant effacement while endothelial cells show reduced luminal fenestrations (in preparation).