Brian Martin

Faculty Mentor: Guy Salama

Research:

Mr. Martin's research is focused on understanding relaxin as a therapy for cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation. We have shown that relaxin attenuates the age-associated increase in collagen, inflammation and cardiac arrhythmia. On-going work seeks to understand the underlying signaling mechanisms by which relaxin reverses pathological cardiac structural and electrical remodeling resulting in cardiac disease. This work includes the interplay between relaxin and nitric oxide and Wnt signaling in both cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts.

Publications:

• Martin B., Gabris-Weber BA, Reddy R, Romero G, Chattopadhyay A, Salama G. (2018). “Relaxin reverses inflammatory and immune signals in aged hearts.” PloS ONE 13(1): e0190935.
• Henry, B. L., Gabris, B., Li, Q., Martin, B., Giannini, M., Parikh, A., Patel, D., Haney, J., Schwartzman, D.S., Shroff, S.G., Salama, G. (2016). "Relaxin suppresses atrial fibrillation in aged rats by reversing fibrosis and upregulating Na+ channels." Heart Rhythm 13(4): 2016. 983-991.

Presentations:

• “Relaxin Suppresses Age Associated Cardiac Inflammation”, Relaxin and Related Peptides, Mexico 2018 (Oral and Poster).
• “Relaxin reverses age induced inflammation with distinct sex differences”, Regional TRiMAD Aging Conference, 2017, Pittsburgh. (Oral). 
• “Relaxin Acts at a Genomic Level to Improve Cardiac Function in Aged Rats”, Heart Rhythm Society, 2017, Chicago. (Poster).
• “Interplay Between Relaxin and Wnt Signaling Suppresses Arrhythmias in Aged Hearts”, Heart Rhythm Society, 2017, Chicago. (Poster).
• “Relaxin Reverses Pro-Inflammatory Gene Expression in Aged Rat Ventricle”, Department of Medicine Research Day 2017, University of Pittsburgh. (Poster)
• “Effects of Relaxin on Aged Ventricles”, Science 2016, University of Pittsburgh. (Poster)

Mr. Martin's research is focused on understanding relaxin as a therapy for cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation.