Spinal cord injury begins with a traumatic contusion which destroys cells, but continues with the inflammation of surviving tissues leading to secondary cell death.  We used functional genomics to characterize the cellular changes occurring during this critical period in hopes of intervening to rescue function.  Recent work focuses on gene expression in selected regenerating brain neurons after spinal cord injury.  We label individual neurons with retrograde dyes and then use laser capture microscopy to recover injured cells with axons extending distal to the injury site.  Following amplification and microarray assays, individual mRNAs selective for regenerating neurons can be identified.  We also study the role of T cells in exacerbation of spinal cord injury.  Other new projects focus on microRNAs in stem cells and regenerating neurons.  Many of these projects are ongoing collaborations with spinal cord research groups from throughout the world.  One component of my group also designs databases for systematic mining of all microarray and animal data.  Our long-term goal is to accelerate the pace of spinal cord injury research through worldwide collaboration.

Selected Publications

Cao, Z., Y. Gao, J.B. Bryson, J. Hou, N. Chaudhry, M. Siddiq, J. Martinez, T. Spencer, J. Carmel, R.P. Hart and M.T. Filbin (2006) The cytokine interleukin-6 is sufficient but not necessary to mimic the peripheral conditioning lesion effect on axonal growth., J Neurosci 26: 5565-73. Abstract | PubMed

Goff, L.A., M. Yang, J. Bowers, R.C. Getts, R.W. Padgett and R. P. Hart. (2005) Rational probe optimization and enhanced detection strategy for microRNAs using microarrays.  RNA Biology. 2(3): e9-e16. Abstract | Reprint

Jones, T.B, R.P. Hart and P.G. Popovich. (2005) Molecular control of physiological and pathological T-cell recruitment after mouse spinal cord injury. J. Neurosci. 25(28):6576-6583. Abstract

Porter, J.F., S. Sharma, D.L. Wilson, M.A. Kappil, R.P. Hart and D.T. Denhardt. (2005) Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases-1 Stimulates Gene Expression in MDA-MB-435 Human Breast Cancer Cells by Means of Its Ability to Inhibit Metalloproteinases. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, In press. Abstract

Shaked, I., O. Butovsky, R. Gersner, X. Xiao, R. P. Hart and M. Schwartz. (2005) Protective autoimmunity: Interferon-γ enables microglia to remove glutamate without evoking inflammatory mediators. J. Neurochem. 92: 997-1009. Abstract | PubMed

Goff, L.A., J. Bowers , J. Schwalm , K. Howerton , R.C. Getts and R.P. Hart (2004) Evaluation of sense-strand mRNA amplification by comparative quantitative PCR. BMC Genomics 5: 76 Abstract | PubMed

Weeks, J.L. and R.P. Hart. (2004) SCI-Base: An open-source spinal cord injury animal experimentation database. Lab Animal 33: 35-41. Poster from Society for Neurotrauma Meeting | Reprint | PubMed

Pan, J.Z., R. Jörnsten, and R.P. Hart. (2004) Screening anti-inflammatory compounds in injured spinal cord with microarrays: A comparison of bioinformatics analysis approaches. Physiological Genomics, 17: 201-214. Abstract | Reprint | PubMed

Sullivan, P.G, A.G. Rabchevsky, J.N. Keller, M. Lovell, A. Sodhi, R.P. Hart, and S.W. Scheff. (2004) Intrinsic Differences in Brain and Spinal Cord Mitochondria: Implication for Therapeutic Interventions. Journal of Comparative Neurology 474:524-534. PubMed

Hu, R., V. Hebbar, B.-R. Kim, C. Chen, B. Winnik, B. Buckley, P. Soteropoulos, P. Tolias, R.P. Hart and A.-N. T. Kong. In Vivo Pharmacokinetics and Regulation of Gene Expression Profiles by Isothiocyanate Sulforaphane in the Rat. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 310: 263-271. PubMed | Reprint

Carmel, J.B., O. Kakinohana, R. Mestril, W. Young, M. Marsala, R.P. Hart. (2004)  Mediators of Ischemic Preconditioning Identified By Microarray Analysis of Rat Spinal Cord.  Experimental Neurology 185: 81-96. Reprint | PubMed

Cizkova, D., J. Marsala, R. Mestril, J.B. Carmel, K. Yamamoto, O. Kakinohana,  R.P. Hart and M. Marsala. (2004) Characterization of spinal HSP72 induction and development of ischemic tolerance after spinal ischemia in rats.  Experimental Neurology 184: 97-108. PubMed

Li, H., Y. Berlin, R.P. Hart and M. Grumet. (2003) Microtubules are critical for radial glial morphology.  Glia 44: 37-46. PubMed

Pan, J.Z, N. Li, N., A. Aguanno, W. Young and R.P. Hart (2002) Cytokine activity contributes to induce cytokine mRNAs in spinal cord following contusion.  Journal of Neuroscience Research.  68: 315-322. PubMed

Nesic, O., N. Svrakic, G.-Y. Xu, D. McAdoo, K. Westlund, C. Hulsebosch, Z. Ye, A. Galante, P. Soteropoulos, P. Tolias, W. Young, R.P. Hart and R. Perez-Polo (2002) DNA microarray analysis of the contused spinal cord: Effect of NMDA receptor inhibition.  Journal of Neuroscience Research. 68: 406-423. PubMed

Jones, T.B., D.M. Basso, A. Sodhi, J.Z. Pan, R.P. Hart, R.C. MacCallum, S. Lee, C.C. Whitacre and P.G. Popovich (2002) Pathological central nervous system autoimmune disease triggered by traumatic spinal cord injury: Implications for autoimmune vaccine therapies.  Journal of Neuroscience.  22: 2690-2700. PubMed

Carmel, J.B., A. Galante, P. Soteropolos, P. Tolias, M. Recce, W. Young and R. P. Hart (2001) Profiling gene expression following spinal cord injury reveals spreading inflammation and neuronal loss.  Physiological Genomics 7:201-213. PubMed