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Office of News and Information
212 Whitehead Hall / 3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2692
Phone: (410) 516-7160 / Fax (410) 516-5251

July 28, 1995
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ken Keatley
jkk@resource.ca.jhu.edu

Innovative Blood Research Earns HopkinsEngineer
A Whitaker Grant

In Rita Alevriadou's laboratory at The Johns Hopkins University, they like the expression "go with the flow."

She and her research team have engineered experimental in vitro systems that mimic blood flow in humans to determine how vital components of the vessel wall -- endothelial cells -- are affected by flow-induced mechanical stresses. Understanding how the friction generated by blood flow affects those cells will be very helpful in the search for better treatment of such cardiovascular diseases as atherosclerosis, restenosis or the narrowing of vessels after angioplasty.

"Endothelial cells are exciting," said Alevriadou, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. "Under normal conditions, they act as a barrier, keeping blood platelets from adhering to the vessel wall. They also release chemicals to prevent platelet thrombosis (blood clotting). But if the cells are altered by disease or removed by injury, thrombosis will occur."

To bolster her efforts to determine how the mechanical environment affects the anti-coagulant properties of the cells, Alevriadou has recently been awarded a grant from the Whitaker Foundation. The three-year grant, which will total $180,000, is one of 42 made under the Washington-based foundation's Biomedical Engineering Research Grants program for 1995.

Another research project being actively pursued in Alevriadou's lab employs such sophisticated techniques as video microscopy and digital image processing to visualize and quantify the extent of platelet thrombosis, from flowing blood, onto surfaces that mimic the diseased vessel wall.

"Our research is important, since in order to improve the treatment strategies for vascular diseases it will be necessary to understand the response of blood cells and endothelial cells to arterial stresses," said Alevriadou.

Much of Alevriadou's research in fluid dynamics and vascular biology is done in collaboration with cardiologists, hematologists and other specialists in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. They are about to embark on another project, which will examine the role of the female hormone estrogen -- which studies have found to be protective against cardiovascular diseases in women -- on endothelial cells.


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