Danxia Liu, Ph.D., Associate Professor
The research in our laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of neuronal degeneration and death and protection against neuronal death in spinal cord injury and neuronal degenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We are looking for endogenous substances which induce cell death, exploring the pathways for them to cause cell death, and searching for cures by reducing damage caused by these substances. Specifically, we are studying the roles of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in secondary cell death following spinal cord injury and in ALS. Reactive species may initiate cell death by attacking the important cell components, thereby triggering oxidative damage to these molecules, and so destroy cells. We are measuring the production of different reactive species and the markers of oxidative damage to protein, DNA and membrane phospholipids in the rat following spinal cord trauma and in the mice transfected with the mutant human SOD1 gene to search for the major damage agents. Then we generate or administer these species in vivo into the rat spinal cord to determine whether they induce oxidative stress and cell death in different types of cells and by different mechanisms (necrosis and apoptosis). Reactive species may also serve as intracellular messengers to deliver death signals initiated by other damaging substances through complex intracellular signaling transduction cascades such as the cysteine aspartic acid specific protease (caspase) activation cascade. The roles of reactive species in extracellular and intracellular death signaling pathways are being investigated. The protection of cell death by antioxidants and scavengers of reactive species are also under investigation.
