Dr. Dario C. Ramirez

National University of San Luis

Argentina

Dr. Ramirez's career is marked by productive research on oxidative stress and inflammation caused by macrophages at sites of tissue irritation triggered by metabolic and environmental stressors. He contributed to the improvement of methods to detect and prevent oxidative damage to macromolecules and discovered that the nitrones spin trap DMPO can be used as both a discovery tool and a therapeutic to reduce inflammation. He strongly believes that hypoxic inflammation may influence tumor biology and the inflammation of 'obese” fat tissue. Interestingly, both monocyte infiltration and the M1/M2 switch of macrophages can be regulated by hypoxic inflammation within these microenvironments. Data from his combined efforts to understand the role of macrophage biology in hypoxic and metabolically switched stressed microenvironments will elucidate mechanisms and identify targets to prevent “obese” fat tissue inflammation and tumor invasiveness or resistance. Additionally, his projects investigate the mechanism linking lung inflammation in obesity with insulin resistance, focusing on neutrophils and oxidations driven by myeloperoxidase (MPO) activation. His team's in vitro and in vivo studies on Western diet-induced obesity aim to test whether natural and synthetic products can inhibit MPO, reduce NF-kB activation, and activate Nrf-2. Nrf-2 and PPAR-? agonists may prove effective in promoting adipogenesis, reducing macrophage polarization toward an inflammatory phenotype, and lowering obesity-related metabolic risks. Current topics in his laboratory include environmental pollution, nutrition, metabolism, noncommunicable diseases, and mechanism-based therapeutics.

Oxidative stress and Inflammation, Macrophages, Macromolecules,