Heddwen L Brooks

Heddwen L Brooks

Professor, Physiology
Professor, Medicine
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Professor, Physiological Sciences - GIDP
Associate Professor, Pharmacology
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 626-7702

Research Interest

Dr. Brooks is a renal physiologist and has developed microarray technology to address in vivo signaling pathways involved in the hormonal regulation of renal function. Current areas of research in the Brooks Laboratory are focused on importance of sex differences in the onset of postmenopausal hypertension and diabetic kidney disease and identifying new therapies for polycystic kidney disease and lithium-induced nephropathy.

Publications

Brooks, H., Brooks, H. L., Gao, Y., Romero-Aleshire, M. J., Cai, Q., & Price, T. J. (2013). Rapamycin inhibition of mTORC1 reverses lithium-induced proliferation of renal collecting duct cells. American Journal of Physiology. Renal physiology, 305(8).

Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) is the most common renal side effect in patients undergoing lithium therapy for bipolar affective disorders. Approximately 2 million US patients take lithium of whom ∼50% will have altered renal function and develop NDI (2, 37). Lithium-induced NDI is a defect in the urinary concentrating mechanism. Lithium therapy also leads to proliferation and abundant renal cysts (microcysts), commonly in the collecting ducts of the cortico-medullary region. The mTOR pathway integrates nutrient and mitogen signals to control cell proliferation and cell growth (size) via the mTOR Complex 1 (mTORC1). To address our hypothesis that mTOR activation may be responsible for lithium-induced proliferation of collecting ducts, we fed mice lithium chronically and assessed mTORC1 signaling in the renal medulla. We demonstrate that mTOR signaling is activated in the renal collecting ducts of lithium-treated mice; lithium increased the phosphorylation of rS6 (Ser240/Ser244), p-TSC2 (Thr1462), and p-mTOR (Ser2448). Consistent with our hypothesis, treatment with rapamycin, an allosteric inhibitor of mTOR, reversed lithium-induced proliferation of medullary collecting duct cells and reduced levels of p-rS6 and p-mTOR. Medullary levels of p-GSK3β were increased in the renal medullas of lithium-treated mice and remained elevated following rapamycin treatment. However, mTOR inhibition did not improve lithium-induced NDI and did not restore the expression of collecting duct proteins aquaporin-2 or UT-A1.

Brooks, H. L., Allred, A. J., Beutler, K. T., Coffman, T. M., & Knepper, M. A. (2002). Targeted proteomic profiling of renal Na(+) transporter and channel abundances in angiotensin II type 1a receptor knockout mice. Hypertension, 39(2 Pt 2), 470-3.

The renal tubule transporters responsible for Na(+) and water transport along the nephron have been identified and cloned, permitting comprehensive analysis of transporter protein abundance changes in complex physiological models by using a "targeted proteomics" approach. Here, we apply this approach to screen renal homogenates from mice in which the gene for the angiotensin II type 1a (AT(1a)) receptor has been deleted (versus wild-type mice) to determine which sodium transporters and channels are regulated by the AT(1a) receptor at the protein abundance level. In mice maintained on a low NaCl diet (0.02% NaCl), (1) the abundances of 2 aldosterone-regulated transporters were markedly decreased in knockout versus wild-type mice, namely, the thiazide-sensitive cotransporter and the alpha-subunit of the amiloride-sensitive Na(+) channel (alpha-ENaC); (2) the abundances of beta-ENaC and gamma-ENaC were markedly increased; and (3) there were no significant changes in the abundances of the proximal tubule Na+-H(+) exchanger or the Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) cotransporter of the thick ascending limb. When the experiment was repeated on higher NaCl diets (0.4% or 6% NaCl), the decrease in alpha-ENaC abundance persisted, whereas the other changes were abolished. Analysis of serum aldosterone concentration in AT(1a) knockout mice and wild-type mice on the low NaCl diet revealed the absence of a decrease with AT(1a) gene deletion (11.8 +/- 2.3 nmol/L for knockout mice and 5.7 +/- 0.8 nmol/L for wild-type mice [significantly increased]). These results reveal that the AT(1a) receptor plays an important role in regulation of Na(+) transporter and channel proteins in the "post-macula densa" region of the renal tubule via a mechanism that is not dependent on altered circulating aldosterone concentrations.

Ho, H. T., Chung, S. K., Law, J. W., Ko, B. C., Tam, S. C., Brooks, H. L., Knepper, M. A., & Chung, S. S. (2000). Aldose reductase-deficient mice develop nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. Molecular and cellular biology, 20(16), 5840-6.

Aldose reductase (ALR2) is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases associated with diabetes mellitus, such as cataract, retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy. However, its physiological functions are not well understood. We developed mice deficient in this enzyme and found that they had no apparent developmental or reproductive abnormality except that they drank and urinated significantly more than their wild-type littermates. These ALR2-deficient mice exhibited a partially defective urine-concentrating ability, having a phenotype resembling that of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.

Takahashi, N., Brooks, H. L., Wade, J. B., Liu, W., Kondo, Y., Ito, S., Knepper, M. A., & Smithies, O. (2002). Posttranscriptional compensation for heterozygous disruption of the kidney-specific NaK2Cl cotransporter gene. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 13(3), 604-10.

Mice homozygous for a loss of function mutation of the kidney-specific NaK2Cl cotransporter, BSC1/NKCC2, do not survive. Here the effects of loss of one copy of the gene are studied. NKCC2 mRNA of NKCC2 +/- kidney was 55 +/- 6% of +/+, yet no differences were found between NKCC2 +/+ and +/- mice in BP, blood gas, electrolytes, creatinine, plasma renin concentration, urine volume and osmolality, ability to concentrate and dilute urine, and response to furosemide. When mice were challenged with 180 mM NH(4)Cl, plasma ammonia and urinary ammonia excretion were increased twofold and fivefold, respectively, but there was still no difference between the two genotypes. NKCC2 +/- mice had a near-normal level of NKCC2 protein and no clear change in the distribution of NKCC2 in the thick ascending limb (TAL) cells. In vitro microperfusion of isolated TAL showed no significant difference between the two genotypes in the basal and vasopressin-stimulated capacity to reabsorb NaCl. There was no difference in the mRNA expressions of thiazide-sensitive NaCl cotransporter, epithelial Na channel (ENaC), aquaporin-2, ROMK, and NaKATPase. Halving the mRNA expression of NKCC2 does not affect BP or fluid balance because of compensatory factors that restore the protein level to near normal. One possible factor is a regulated increase in the movement of cytoplasmic protein to the luminal membrane leading to a restoration of functional transporter to an essentially wild type level.

Brooks, H. L., Ageloff, S., Kwon, T., Brandt, W., Terris, J. M., Seth, A., Michea, L., Nielsen, S., Fenton, R., & Knepper, M. A. (2003). cDNA array identification of genes regulated in rat renal medulla in response to vasopressin infusion. American journal of physiology. Renal physiology, 284(1), F218-28.

With the aim of identifying possible gene targets for direct or indirect regulation by vasopressin in the renal medulla, we have carried out cDNA array experiments in inner medullas of Brattleboro rats infused with the V(2) receptor-selective vasopressin analog desamino-Cys1,d-Arg8 vasopressin (dDAVP) for 72 h. Of the 1,176 genes on the array, 137 transcripts were increased by 2-fold or more, and 10 transcripts were decreased to 0.5-fold or less. Quantitative, real-time RT-PCR measurements confirmed increases seen for six selected transcripts (Wilms' tumor protein, beta-arrestin 2, neurofibromin, casein kinase IIbeta, aquaporin-3, and aquaporin-4). To correlate changes in mRNA expression with changes in protein expression, we carried out quantitative immunoblotting for 28 of the proteins whose cDNAs were on the array. For several targets including aquaporin-2, transcript abundance and protein abundance changes did not correlate. However, for most genes examined, changes in mRNA abundances were associated with concomitant protein abundance changes. Targets with demonstrated increases in both protein and mRNA abundances included neurofibromin, casein kinase IIbeta, the beta-subunit of the epithelial Na channel (beta-ENaC), 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2, and c-Fos. Additional cDNA arrays revealed that several transcripts that were increased in abundance after 72 h of dDAVP were also increased after 4 h, including casein kinase IIbeta, beta-ENaC, aquaporin-3, UT-A, and syntaxin 2. These studies have identified several transcripts whose abundances are regulated in the inner medulla in response to infusion of dDAVP and that could play roles in the regulation of salt and water excretion.