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Karen
H.
Gylys, PhD, RN
Location: 5-141 Factor Building |
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Karen
H.
Gylys, PhD, RN
Location: 5-141 Factor Building |
Academic/Administrative Appointment
Assistant Professor
Honors and Awards
Member, Society for Neuroscience
Member, UCLA Brain Research Institute
Member, UCLA Faculty with Interest in Aging
Member, American Aging Association
1998 to 2003: Pharmacology editor and editorial board member, Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
Reviewer, American Journal of Critical Care (2000-2001), Journal of Vascular Research (2002-2003), Cytometry (2003), Brain (2004)
Teaching
N173: Introduction to Nursing Research
N204: Research Design and Critique
N225: Pharmacology for Advanced Practice Nurses
Mentor, Undergraduate Student Research Program
Research and Scholarship
My lab is focused on understanding early changes in Alzheimer's disease brain, specifically the mechanisms by which synapses degenerate. We study postmortem Alzheimer's tissue and transgenic mouse models of this disease, and focus on the synapse region through use of a synaptosome preparation (resealed nerve terminals). Synaptic changes are detected using a sensitive and novel methodology that we have developed for flow cytometry analysis of synaptosomes; we also use conventional biochemical assays including ELISA and Westerns. Current experiments are focused on the contribution of apoE genotype and lipids to the accumulation of amyloid-beta in synaptic terminals, and the role that this accumulation plays in early cognitive loss and lesion formation.
Techniques: Cultured human neuroblastoma cells and crude synaptosomes prepared from rat brain are used. Flow cytometry analysis is used to measure of markers of interest labeled by immunologic (ex . SNAP-25, GFAP) or dye-labeling techniques (ex. Annexin, calcein AM). Caspase activity is measured with a fluorogenic enzyme assay. Immunocytochemical techniques are used to localize markers of interest in intact cultured cells.
Publications
Ringman JM, Coppola G, Elashoff D, Rodriguez-Agudelo Y, Medina LD, Gylys K, Cummings JL, Cole GM. (2012).Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers and Proximity to Diagnosis in Preclinical Familial Alzheimer's Disease. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 13, 1-5.
Sokolow S, Henkins KM, Williams IA, Vinters HV, Schmid I, Cole GM, Gylys KH. (2012).Isolation of synaptic terminals from Alzheimer's disease cortex. Cytometry A., 81, 248-54.
Arold S, Sullivan P, Bilousova T, Teng E, Miller CA, Poon WW, Vinters HV, Cornwell LB, Saing T, Cole GM, Gylys KH. (2012). Apolipoprotein E level and cholesterol are associated with reduced synaptic amyloid beta in Alzheimer's disease and apoE TR mouse cortex. Acta Neuropathologica, 123, 39-52.
Sokolow S, Luu SH, Nandy K, Miller CA, Vinters HV, Poon WW, Gylys KH. (2012). Preferential accumulation of amyloid-beta in presynaptic glutamatergic terminals (VGluT1 and VGluT2) in Alzheimer's disease cortex. Neurobiology of Disease, 45, 381-7.
Gylys KH, Fein JA, Wiley, DJ, Cole GM (2004) Rapid annexin-V labeling in synaptosomes. Neurochemistry International 44, 125-131.
Gylys, Karen H., Fein, Jeffrey A, Yang, F, and Cole, Gregory M. (2004) Enrichment of pre- and post-synaptic markers by size-based gating analysis of synaptosome preparations from rat and human cortex. Cytometry Part A: 60A:90-96.
Gylys, Karen H., Fein, Jeffrey A, Yang, F, Dorothy J. Wiley, Carol A. Miller, and Cole, Gregory M. (2004) Synaptic changes in Alzheimer's disease: increased amyloid- and gliosis in surviving terminals is accompanied by decreased PSD-95 fluorescence. American Journal of Pathology 165(5), 1809-1817.
Gylys, Karen H., Fein, Jeffrey A and Cole, Gregory M. Flow cytometry analysis of a crude synaptosomal fraction (P-2) from rat brain. in press, Journal of Neuroscience Research.
Gylys, KH, Fein JA, Tan AM, Cole GM (2003) Apolipoprotein E enhances uptake of soluble but not aggregated amyloid- into synaptic terminals. Journal of Neurochemistry 84, 1442-1451.
Gylys, Karen H. (2000) Pharmacological Approaches to Abnormal Blood Lipids. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 14(2), 9-15.
Gylys, K.H., Fein, J.A. and Cole, G.M. Measurement of caspase activity in rat brain synaptosomes by flow cytometry. Abstract and poster presentation, Alzheimer's Disease: Relevance of Transgenics and Knockouts to Understanding Pathogenesis and Drug Development, UCLA Faculty Center, March 12, 1999.
Gylys, Karen H. (1998) Antimicrobial Resistance. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 13(2), 66-69.