Christie M. Ballantyne, M.D.
Positions:
- Professor of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
- Chief, Section of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine
- Director, The Maria and Alando J. Ballantyne, M.D., Atherosclerosis Clinical Research Laboratory
- Director, Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Methodist DeBakey Heart Center
- Co-director, Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic, The Methodist Hospital
Contact Information:
Phone: 713-798-5034
Fax: 713-798-3057
E-mail: cmb@bcm.edu
Basic Research Interests:
The general area of research interest for Dr. Ballantyne's laboratory is the role of inflammation and cell adhesion molecules in vascular disease. Dr. Ballantyne and colleagues have adopted a molecular genetic approach toward this problem and have utilized targeted homologous recombination to develop mutant mice deficient in various cell adhesion molecules including CD11a, CD11b, CD11c, and CD11d. These mice are being studied in models of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, vascular injury and acute inflammation. The mechanisms by which hyperlipidemia and obesity influence inflammation are also being studied. Characterization of the mutant mice involves a wide range of techniques, including molecular biology, cell biology, and integrative physiology.
Clinical Research Interests:
Dr. Ballantyne's clinical research is the prevention of atherosclerotic vascular disease. This interest includes pharmacological studies to assess the efficacy and benefits of lipid-lowering drug therapy including trials which utilize ultrasound and MRI to examine the effects of lipid-lowering drugs on the progression of atherosclerosis. As the director of The Maria and Alando J. Ballantyne, M.D., Atherosclerosis Clinical Research Laboratory, which serves as the core laboratory for the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Dr. Ballantyne is studying whether novel biomarkers might be useful in identifying individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease, the metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Both genomics and proteomics are being used to identify novel molecules that are increased with atherosclerosis and the metabolic syndrome.
Selected Publications:
- Wu H, Ghosh S, Perrard XD, Feng L, Garcia GE, Perrard JL, Sweeney JF, Peterson LE, Chan L, Smith CW, Ballantyne CM. T-cell accumulation and regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted upregulation in adipose tissue in obesity. Circulation 2007;115:1029-1038.
- Phillipson M, Heit B, Colarusso P, Liu L, Ballantyne CM, Kubes P. Intraluminal crawling of neutrophils to emigration sites: a molecularly distinct process from adhesion in the recruitment cascade. J Exp Med 2006;203:2569-2575.
- Abe Y, Fornage M, Yang CY, Bui-Thanh NA, Wise V, Chen HH, Rangaraj G, Ballantyne CM. L5, the most electronegative subfraction of plasma LDL, induces endothelial vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 and CXC chemokines, which mediate mononuclear leukocyte adhesion. Atherosclerosis 2006.
- Thakker GD, Frangogiannis NG, Bujak M, Zymek P, Gaubatz JW, Reddy AK, Taffet G, Michael LH, Entman ML, Ballantyne CM. Effects of diet-induced obesity on inflammation and remodeling after myocardial infarction. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2006;291:H2504-H2514.
- Ballantyne CM, Bertolami M, Hernandez Garcia HR, Nul D, Stein EA, Theroux P, Weiss R, Cain VA, Raichlen JS. Achieving LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B target levels in high-risk patients: Measuring Effective Reductions in Cholesterol Using Rosuvastatin therapY (MERCURY) II. Am Heart J 2006;151:975.e1-9.
- Nissen SE, Nicholls SJ, Sipahi I, Libby P, Raichlen JS, Ballantyne CM, Davignon J, Erbel R, Fruchart JC, Tardif JC, Schoenhagen P, Crowe T, Cain V, Wolski K, Goormastic M, Tuzcu EM; ASTEROID Investigators. Effect of very high-intensity statin therapy on regression of coronary atherosclerosis: the ASTEROID trial. JAMA 2006;295:1556-1565.
- Ballantyne CM, Hoogeveen RC, Bang H, Coresh J, Folsom AR, Chambless LE, Myerson M, Wu KK, Sharrett AR, Boerwinkle E. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and risk for incident ischemic stroke in middle-aged men and women in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. Arch Intern Med 2005;165:2479-2484.
- Vasudevan AR, Wu H, Xydakis AM, Jones PH, Smith EO, Sweeney JF, Corry DB, Ballantyne CM. Eotaxin and obesity. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006;91:256-261.
- Liu MY, Xydakis AM, Hoogeveen RC, Jones PH, Smith EO, Nelson KW, Ballantyne CM. Multiplexed analysis of biomarkers related to obesity and the metabolic syndrome in human plasma, using the Luminex-100 system. Clin Chem 2005;51:1102-1109.
- Ballantyne CM, Hoogeveen RC, Bang H, Coresh J, Folsom AR, Heiss G, Sharrett AR. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and risk for incident coronary heart disease in middle-aged men and women in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Circulation 2004;109:837-842.