2011 M. Irene Ferrer Awardee, Columbia University
Dr. Jon T. Giles, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is examining the reasons that atherosclerotic heart disease is increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He is exploring gender differences in the characteristics of body fat and the blood vessels that supply it in patients with RA. He believes that compared to men, women with rheumatoid arthritis will show more inflammation in their fat tissue and less ability of their body fat to use glucose. In previous studies, he has found no difference in the quantity of fat around the intestines (visceral fat) and in the thin sheet of tissue that covers the heart (the pericardium) between the sexes, and will test the hypothesis that gender-specific differences in the metabolic characteristics of the fat determine the severity of heart disease in RA patients. Dr. Giles has completed the difficult tasks of establishing and testing of the techniques for measuring the amount and location of body fat accurately and for defining the immune characteristics of the fat cells and the blood vessels supplying them. Patient enrollment has just begun and they will supply fat tissue biopsies that Dr. Giles will characterize.