Charlotte Peterson, Ph.D. is a Professor for the Departments of Geriatrics, Physiology and Biophysics at UAMS and a Health Research Scientist at the Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System. She is also Director of the UAMS Microarray Core Facility and the Genomics Core within the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN).
Dr. Peterson’s research focuses on elucidation of molecular mechanisms controlling skeletal muscle structure and function. She is currently funded to study stem cell activity during muscle regeneration and has recently provided evidence that inherent changes in gene expression in stem cells responsible for muscle repair occur with age so that the cells display an adipocyte- or fat-like phenotype. Thus, she is the first to show that common mechanisms may contribute to loss of bone and muscle with age.
She is also funded to study the genetic basis of differences in the muscle inflammatory response to damage. The inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) is being studied to determine if IL-1 gene polymorphisms and the IL-1-mediated inflammatory response to damaging exercise are predictive of the hypertrophic response of muscle to chronic resistance training by elderly individuals.
Finally, ongoing studies are identifying mechanisms contributing to restoration of muscle mass following atrophy due to disuse and spinal cord injury. Her work emphasizes changes that occur with age with the long term goal of preventing frailty and loss of functional independence.
Burton, G.R., R. Nagarajan, C.A. Peterson, and R.E. McGehee, Jr. (2004). Microarray analysis of differentiation-specific gene expression during 3T3-L1 adipogenesis. Gene 329:167-185.
Knox, M., J.D. Fluckey, P. Bennett, C.A. Peterson, and E.E. Dupont-Versteegden. (2004). Hind limb unloading in adult rats using an alternative tail harness design. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine 75:692-696.
Nagarajan, R., J.E. Aubin, and C.A. Peterson. (2004). Modeling genetic networks from clonal analysis. J. Theoretical Biol. 230:359-373.
Gallegly, J.C., N.A. Turesky, B.A. Strotman, C.M. Gurley, C.A. Peterson, and E.E. Dupont-Versteegden. (2004). Satellite cell regulation of muscle mass is altered at old age. J. Applied Physiol. 97:1082-1090.
Beggs, M.L., R. Nagarajan, J.M. Taylor-Jones, G. Nolen, M. Macnicol, and C.A. Peterson (2004). Alterations in the TGFb Signaling Pathway in Myogenic Progenitors with Age. Aging Cell 3:353-361.
Dennis, R.A., T.A. Trappe, P. Simpson, C. Carroll, B.E. Huang, R. Nagarajan, E. Bearden, C. Gurley, G.W. Duff, W.J. Evans, K. Kornman, and C.A. Peterson. (2004). Interleukin-1 polymorphisms are associated with the inflammatory response in human muscle to acute resistance exercise. J. Physiol., in press, available online 26 August 2004.
Fluckey, J.D., E.E. Dupont-Versteegden, M. Knox, D. Gaddy, P.A. Tesch, and C.A. Peterson. (2004). Insulin facilitation of muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise in hindlimb-suspended rats is independent of a rapamycin-sensitive pathway. Am. J. Physiol., in press, available online 10 August 2004.
