Atherosclerosis Research Lab - Homepage

Robert Raffai, PhD

Principal Investigator, Atherosclerosis Research Lab
Professor of Surgery
Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Research Career Scientist 
Department of Veterans Affairs

Extracellular Vesicles and Metabolic Regulation of Immunity in Atherosclerosis & Cardiometabolic Diseases 

Our research program investigates the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes as biomarkers and effectors in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases. Our teams’ recent studies pioneered the study of hyperglycemia and cytokine signaling in modulating the regulated release of microRNA from macrophages into exosomes. Our findings provided the first evidence documenting a role for high glucose-exposed macrophage exosomes as contributors to cardiovascular inflammation and atherosclerosis in diabetes. They also demonstrated that exosomes produced by IL4-exposed macrophages can serve to overcome cardiometabolic inflammation, improve insulin resistance, and resolve atherosclerosis in obese diabetic mice. 

Our ongoing studies point to ApoE and as a critical modulators of exosome inflammatory activity in the cardiovascular and neurologic systems. We are interested to know if ApoE4 causes macrophages and microglial cells to produce exosomes that can accelerate inflammation and pathologies in these compartments. Our long-term goal is to develop macrophage exosomes as novel therapeutics to control human cardiometabolic and neuroinflammatory diseases. 

BREAKING NEWS

• Raffai Lab Reports the use of IL4-Polarized Human Macrophage Exosomes as Novel Biologics to Control Cardiometabolic Inflammation & Type II Diabetes
  Read more: IL-4 polarized human macrophage exosomes control cardiometabolic inflammation and diabetes in obesity
   
• Raffai Lab Reports new Biological Properties for Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) that Control MicroRNA-Regulated Macrophage Immunometabolism & Inflammatory Signaling via Extracellular Vesicles
  Read more: PMID: 32668250, PMID: 37593979