This week we profile a recent publication in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
from the laboratories of Drs. Issy Laher (pictured, left) and Najib Ayas (right) at UBC.
Can you provide a brief overview of your lab’s current research focus?
Drs. Najib Ayas and Issy Laher collaborate to better understand the cardiovascular complications arising from sleep disordered breathing such as sleep apnea.
What is the significance of the findings in this publication?
We report that intermittent hypoxia (a hallmark of sleep apnea) accelerates the aging of vascular and renal tissue in mouse model of sleep apnea. This model has the advantage of being free of comorbidities which frequently confound findings in humans with sleep apnea.
What are the next steps for this research?
Study mitigation strategies to reduce telomere shortening in animal models of sleep apnea in the hope of progressing towards clinical trials in humans.
This research was funded by:
Sleep Disorders Team Grant from the CIHR
