<html> <head> <title>Peter A. Crawford, M.D., Ph.D.</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#000000"> <h1 align="center"><img src="../images/Fac_Res_Int.gif" width="640" height="150"></h1> <table width="771" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td height="47" width="191"> <div align="center"></div> </td> <td height="47" width="10"> <p align="center">&nbsp;</p> </td> <td height="47" width="556"> <p><font size="5"><b><font color="#FFFFFF">Peter A. Crawford, M.D., Ph.D.</font></b></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign=top width="191" height="150"> <font color="#FFFFFF"> <p align=center><img src="../images/faculty/crawford.jpg" width="180" height="156"> </p> <p align=center><font size="+1">Washington University<br> School of Medicine</font></p> <p> Dept. of Genetics<br> Box 8086<br> 660 S. Euclid Ave.<br> St. Louis, MO 63110</p> <p>tel: (314) <font size="+1">747-3009</font><br> fax: (314) <font size="+1">362-0186</font><br> email: <a href="mailto:pcrawfor@im.wustl.edu"><font color="#FFFFFF">pcrawfor@im.wustl.edu</font></a><br> </p> <p>&nbsp; </p></font> </td> <td width="10" height="385">&nbsp;</td> <td width="556" height="385"> <p><font color="#FFFFFF"><b><font color="#FFFF00">RESEARCH INTEREST</font></b> </font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FFFFFF">Regulation of mammalian energy homeostasis requires orchestrated function of multiple organs. Our lab studies the mechanisms through which the gastrointestinal tract governs integrated metabolism via its two classes of effectors: the eukaryotic cells that comprise the gut mucosa, and the prokaryotic cells of the gut microbial population. We are particularly interested in how these effectors influence cardiac biology and their potential role in the treatment and prevention of the metabolic syndrome.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FFFFFF">Mammals have co-evolved with a vast and diverse community of gut microbial partners, whose cellular constituency within GI tract is 10-fold greater than that of the entire organism's eukaryotic cells. These microbial communities are endowed with a profound capacity to catabolize complex polysaccharides. Therefore, it is not surprising that laboratory-derived germ-free animals, devoid of any microbes, store less fat than normally-colonized animals illustrating the remarkable ability of gut microbes to influence host energetics. The heart is a high-energy organ, and as such it faithfully reports the influence of gut microbial metabolism on host metabolism. We have shown that the hearts of germ-free mice are relatively undersized, and require less fatty acid oxidation than the hearts of normally-colonized animals. We wish to understand how the gut microbiota collaborates with host's genome; environmental factors, like diet composition and the use of antibiotics; and natural states of mammalian energetic flux, such as postnatal development and aging, to direct myocardial metabolism and function. We employ multiple modalities using germ-free and normally-colonized mice: (i) in silico reconstruction of canonical signaling and metabolic pathways, derived from gene chip microarray profiles; (ii) ex vivo quantitative measurements of myocardial fuel choice, energy utilization, and functional performance; (iii) mouse echocardiography for in vivo cardiac structural and functional characterization; and (iv) qRT-PCR and biochemical analysis (e.g., GC-MS "shotgun -omics," targeted hormone assays) of cardiac, liver, skeletal muscle, and adipocyte extracts, to reveal biomarkers of the dialog among gut microbes and host metabolic organs. The role of well-described regulators of lipid metabolism, such as the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) transcription factors, are mechanistically linked by using gain- and loss-of-function models in a germ-free environment. The concerted deployment of unbiased, genome-wide approaches and targeted pathway-specific analysis will unveil new insight into the molecular mechanisms which demonstrate the presence of a "gut-heart axis."</font></p> <p><font color="#FFFF00"><b>SELECTED PUBLICATIONS</b></font></p> <font color="#FFFFFF"> <p>Bäckhed, F., Crawford, P.A., O'Donnell, D., Gordon, J.I. Postnatal lymphatic partitioning from the blood vasculature in the small intestine requires Fiaf. (2007) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104:606-611.</p> <p>Crawford, P.A. and J.I. Gordon. Microbial regulation of intestinal radiosensitivity. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102:13254-13259.</p> <p>Enomoto, H., Crawford, P.A., Gorodinsky, A., Heukeroth, R.O., Johnson, E.M., Milbrandt, J. (2001) RET signaling is essential for migration, axonal growth and axon guidance of developing sympathetic neurons. Development. 128:3963-3974.</p> <p>Ou,Q., Mouillet, J. F., Yan, X., Dorn, C., Crawford, P.A., Sadovksy, Y. (2001) The DEAD Box Protein DP103 Is a Regulator of Steroidogenic Factor-1 Mol. Endocrinol. 15: 69-79.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <h1>&nbsp;</h1> <h1>&nbsp;</h1> <h1><font size="+1"><BR> </font></h1> </body></html>