Research Profile - College of Medicine and Health Science - United ...

Department of Physiology
Nervensystem Kinderchirurgie in Zweibrucken,
Germany (January 2008; motility mapping of
neonatal rat small intestine seeded with stem
cells, Professor H Schafer), the Division of
Cardiovascular and Endocrine Sciences, University
of Manchester, in Manchester, UK (July 2008,
electrical mapping of the knock-out murine SAnode,
Dr Ming) and the Bioengineering Laboratory,
Auckland University, Auckland NZ (December
2008; electrical mapping of the porcine and the
human stomach; Professors Pullan, Cheng and
Windsor). The laboratory also hosted one visitor
last November; Professor Jan Huizinga, Director of
the Farncombe Family Intestinal Health Research
Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
who gave a talk to the faculty.
In the UAE, research collaboration has developed
with Dr Sandeep Subramanya, Assistant
Professor, department of Physiology, RAK
Medical School, to study the effects of cholera
toxin on the electrical and mechanical activities
in the rat small intestine, a project for which
we have also submitted together a Hamdan
grant. At FMHS, a collaborative project is
ongoing with Dr Fayez Hammad investigating
the acute and long-term effects of permanent
or reversible unilateral ureter obstruction on
the electrical activity proximal and distal to the
obstruction, with a first presentation expected
in Stockholm in March 2009
Figure: Slow wave propagation during irregular tachygastria. Upper traces display continuous variations in waveform
amplitudes and directions. Four periods (A-D) were selected and the corresponding maps presented in the lower panels. Map
A shows a large waveform originating from the distal antrum propagating retrogradely, and colliding with a second slow
wave descending from the corpus. Map B shows again a slow wave with a distal antral origin and two premature waves
originating simultaneously close to the corpus (blue isochrone). These three waveforms then merged in the middle of the
antrum. Map C: shows two waveforms, one propagating close to the lesser curvature and another one propagating close to
the greater curvature; they collided with each other in the distal antrum. In map D, a re-entrant wave (red isochrone; t = 34.0
seconds), revolved as a large counter clockwise loop in the middle of the antrum. Lower inset: location of the 240-mapping
electrode system on the stomach (Lammers et al, Gastroenterology 135, 1601-1611, 2008).
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