CLARK M. BLATTEIS, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Physiology

The University of Tennessee College of Medicine

Address

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

894 Union Avenue

Memphis, TN 38163

Tel: (901) 448-5845; Fax: (901) 448-7126;

Lab: 517 Nash Research Building

Education

Ph.D. Institution: University of Iowa, Department of Physiology

Postdoctoral: Oxford University, Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, Oxford, United Kingdom

Research Interests

The research interest of this laboratory concerns the mechanisms by which the brain regulates and integrates the body's physiologic processes that serve to defend it against the noxious effects of infectious agents. Several endogenous mediators, called cytokines, e.g., interleukins, interferons, tumor necrosis factors, orchestrate these host defense mechanisms. These substances act, in part, through the central nervous system to initiate an array of responses, including fever, neutrophilia, sleep, certain blood chemical changes, release of various hormones, induction of immune factors, etc. To study the neuromodulation of these diverse responses, these cytokines, their inducers, putative neurotransmitters, and/or inhibitors are injected systemically or intracerebrally into various animal models, such that the role of a discrete brain region in a defined spectrum of cytokine activities may be revealed. Thus, we surgically prepare rabbits, rats, or guinea pigs by implanting devices into specific brain sites and measure the responses to local warming or cooling, electrical stimulation, infused substances, etc.; or we destroy these sites electrolytically or pharmacologically; or, by means of microknives, interrupt nerve tracks projecting to and from them. We generally measure the following variables in vivo: body temperatures, metabolic rate, thermopreferendum, white cell counts, food and water consumptions, the plasma levels of iron, zinc, copper and various so-called "acute-phase" proteins, as well as various factors in the brain, e.g., norepinephrine, and prostaglandin E2. We also conduct studies in vitro, using brain slices, and record single unit activities from identified thermosensitive and chemosensitive neurons, as well as assay the cytokine-stimulated production by these tissues of various putative neuromodulators.

Links

Physiology - Clark M. Blatteis

Recent Publications

• Li S, Dou W, Tang Y, Goorha S, Ballou LR, Blatteis CM. Acetaminophen: antipyretic or hypothermic in mice? In either case, PGHS-1b (COX-3) is irrelevant. Prostaglandins Other Lipid Mediat. 2008 Mar;85(3-4):89-99. Epub 2007 Nov 12. PMID: 18083054
• Blatteis CM. The onset of fever: new insights into its mechanism. Prog Brain Res. 2007;162:3-14. Review. PMID: 17645911
• Feleder C, Perlik V, Blatteis CM. Preoptic norepinephrine mediates the febrile response of guinea pigs to lipopolysaccharide. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007 Sep;293(3):R1135-43. Epub 2007 Jun 20. PMID: 17584956
• Feleder C, Perlik V, Blatteis CM. Preoptic nitric oxide attenuates endotoxic fever in guinea pigs by inhibiting the POA release of norepinephrine. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007 Sep;293(3):R1144-51. Epub 2007 Jun 20. PMID: 17584955
• Blatteis CM. Endotoxic fever: new concepts of its regulation suggest new approaches to its management. Pharmacol Ther. 2006 Jul;111(1):194-223. Epub 2006 Feb 3. Review. PMID: 16460809
• Li Z, Perlik V, Feleder C, Tang Y, Blatteis CM. Kupffer cell-generated PGE2 triggers the febrile response of guinea pigs to intravenously injected LPS. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2006 May;290(5):R1262-70. Epub 2006 Jan 12. PMID: 16410400

view complete list of references (pubmed link)