Main ContentAlejandro Chade, MD
Areas of expertise
- General: Renovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, use of imaging to study renal physiology and pathophysiology, renal microcirculation, development of novel therapeutic interventions
- Specific: Mechanisms of renal injury in chronic renovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular risk factors, role of renal microvascular rarefaction in defining the progression of renal injury and the outcomes of the kidney in response to treatment, potential for renal microvessels to service as therapeutic targets, stimulation of renal angiogenesis and vascular repair via specific targeted interventions using angiogenic cytokines, therapeutic development (characterization, pre-clinical testing, toxicity, efficacy) of novel treatments to preserve and recover renal function
Research methods
The Chade laboratory uses a large animal model of disease (domestic swine). The following list summarizes the most frequently used research methods we employ:
Induction of renovascular hypertension by implantation of a local irritant coil inside the main renal artery, unilaterally or bilaterally, leading to renal artery stenosis, hypertension, and progressive deterioration of renal function and development of renal injury. Induction of dyslipidemia via high-cholesterol diet feeding. Chronic instrumentation for long-term measurement of blood pressure (telemetry). Studies of a single-kidney hemodynamics and function in vivo using high-resolution clinically-validated multi-detector computerized tomography. Studies of the renal microvascular architecture in situ using 3D micro-computerized tomography. Renal histology, morphometric analyses, immunohistochemistry and state of the art molecular biology methods for studying underlying mechanisms of target organ injury in renovascular and chronic renal disease and responses to treatments. Preclinical testing and development of novel therapeutic interventions.
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