VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
Eastern Colorado Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (EC-GRECC)
Eastern Colorado GRECC Investigators
21 August 2020
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Dwight Klemm, PhD
- Title: Professor, Pulmonary Sciences
- Contact: dwight.klemm@cuanschutz.edu
- Personal Statement
I have worked in adipocyte biology for over 25 years. During the first 14 years was focused on transcriptional regulation of adipogenesis and adipocyte survival. In 2004 I initiated studies to determine whether non-tissue resident progenitor cells traffic to adipose tissue and generate new adipocytes. My laboratory was the first to demonstrate that some adipocytes are produced from progenitors cells that have a hematopoietic rather than mesenchymal origin. We subsequently demonstrated that these unique adipocytes are 1) also produced in humans, 2) higher in female rather than male mice, 3) characterized by a proinflammatory, but low metabolic gene expression profile, and 4) produced from adipose tissue macrophage. Preliminary studies described in this proposal indicate that the highest number of these potentially detrimental adipocytes is found in pericardial adipose tissue. In 2009 I joined the faculty of the Gates Center for Center Regenerative Medicine and Stem Biology. - I was a Research Biologist and Director of Basic Research for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Section of the Veterans Administration Eastern Colorado Health Care System (VA ECHCS) from 2001 to 2008, and currently serve as a Research Biologist in the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the same VA facility since 2016. I am also a professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus where I serve as co-director of the Obesity Cell Biology Program of the Colorado Obesity Research Institute. In this capacity I have priority access to the institute’s Energy Balance Core, Metabolic Core and Cell Biology Core. I also serve as Associate Director of our Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) on aging, gonadal hormones and obesity. Given my expertise in adipocyte and stem cell biology, our initial description and continued characterization of bone marrow-derived adipocytes, and access to state-of-the-art core facilities at VA ECHCS and University of Colorado, my laboratory is uniquely suited to complete the proposed studies.
Recent Publications
Summers ME, Richmond BW, Menon S, Sheridan RM, Kropski JA, Majka SA, Taketo MM, Bastarache JA, West JD, De Langhe S, Geraghty P, Klemm DJ, Chu HW, Friedman RS, Tao YK, Foronjy RF, Majka SM. Resident mesenchymal vascular progenitors modulate adaptive angiogenesis and pulmonary remodeling via regulation of canonical Wnt signaling. FASEB J. 2020 Jun 13.
PMID: 32533805.
Garat CV, Majka SM, Sullivan TM, Crossno JT, Reusch JEB, Klemm DJ. CREB depletion in smooth muscle cells promotes medial thickening, adventitial fibrosis and elicits pulmonary hypertension. Pulm Circ. 2020 Apr-Jun; 10(2):2045894019898374.
PMID: 32313640.
Gewin LS, Summers ME, Harral JW, Gaskill CF, Khodo SN, Neelisetty S, Sullivan TM, Hopp K, Reese JJ, Klemm DJ, Kon V, Ess KC, Shi W, Majka SM. Inactivation of Tsc2 in Abcg2 lineage-derived cells drives the appearance of polycystic lesions and fibrosis in the adult kidney. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2019 11 01; 317(5):F1201-F1210.
PMID: 31461347.
