Department of Medicine
University of Wisconsin
KURT W SAUPE
Contact Information
1300 UNIVERSITY AVE
MADISON, WI 53706
Biography
Dr. Saupe is a Madison native, having completed both his Bachelors and PhD (Physiology Department) degrees at the University of Wisconsin. Between these two degrees, he completed a Masters of Science in exercise physiology at Penn State University, and worked for the Chicago Fire Department. He conducted his post-doctoral training at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston prior to joining the faculty at Boston University.
Dr. Saupe is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, moving from Boston University to the UW in December of 2001As a physiologist, his general interest is in using interventions including aging, diet, exercise and injury/disease to investigate the cellular and molecular underpinnings of pathophysiological processes. The overall interest of Dr Saupe's laboratory is cardiovascular pathophysiology with their current studies encompassing two distinct areas described below.
Effects of aging and an "anti-aging" diet of chronic caloric restriction on resident stem/progenitor cells in the heart and white adipose tissue.
Dr Saupe has determined that contrary to expectations the number of putative stem cells (side population cells) increases in the hearts of aged (2-year old) mice. Importantly, this includes the fraction of the side population cells highly enriched for cardiomyocyte progenitor cells (lineage-/Sca1+/CD31-). Defining in detail the molecular and physiological effects of aging and a calorie restricted diet know to retard aging on the stem/progenitor cells from the heart and fat is the focus of much of his current aging research. To pursue these studies, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute awarded our laboratory an R21 award "Impact of chronic caloric restriction on resident progenitor cells in the heart".
His interest in white adipose tissue (fat) in the context of stem/progenitor cells is that fat is a potentially rich source of cells for regenerative medicine, and appears to respond to aging/CR very differently than does the heart. Specifically, he has found that in white adipose both the number and growth potential of putative adipose-derived stem cells decreases with advanced age in mice.
Role of adipose tissue AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in cardiovascular disease, obesity and thermoregulation.
A second aspect of his studies of fat center around the realization that while fat was once viewed as a relatively inert storage depot for energy, in recent years it has been recognized that adipose tissue is a complex endocrine organ secreting many "adipokines" that play direct roles in determining cardiac health. His recent studies indicate that adrenergic stimulation may be linked to upregulation of AMPK expression in white adipocytes. To study the relationship between adrenergic signaling and AMPK in white adipose tissue he uses AMPK knockout mice, in vivo pharmacology, and mouse models of obesity and cardiovascular disease. In brown adipose tissue he has established that AMPK has higher activity than any other tissue yet described, and that chronic cold exposure increases AMPK expression/activity even further in an isoform specific way. Current studies in our laboratory investigate the physiological role of AMPK in brown adipose tissue in regulating body temperature and weight using a1AMPK-/- mice. These studies are supported by an RO1 grant from NIDDK titled "Sympathetic regulation of AMPK in the control of non-shivering thermogenesis".
Search for Kurt Saupe's literature abstracts on PubMed
Jamie L. Barger, Tsuyoshi Kayo, James M. Vann , Edward B. Arias, Jelai Wang, Timothy A. Hacker, Ying Wang, Daniel Raederstorff, Jason D. Morrow, Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, David B. Allison, Kurt W. Saupe, Gregory D. Cartee, Richard Weindruch, Tomas A. Prolla. A low dose of dietary resveratrol partially mimics caloric restriction and retards aging parameters in mice. PLoS ONE. Jun 4;3(6), 2008.
Mulligan JD, Stewart AM, Saupe KW. Downregulation of plasma insulin levels and hepatic PPAR? expression during the first week of caloric restriction in mice. Experimental Gerontology, Mar;43(3):146-153, 2008.
Colman RJ, Nam G, Huchthausen L, Mulligan JD, Saupe KW. Energy restriction-induced changes in body composition are age specific in mice. J Nutrition. Oct;137 (10):2247-51, 2007.
Korzick DH, Kostyak JC, Hunter JC, Saupe KW. Local delivery of PKCe-activating peptide mimics ischemic preconditioning in aged hearts through GSK3ß but not F1ATPase inactivation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. Oct;293(4):H2056-63, 2007.
Mulligan JD, Gonzalez AA, Stewart AM, Carey HV, Saupe KW. Upregulation of AMPK during cold exposure occurs via distinct mechanism in brown and white adipose tissue. J Physiol. Apr 15;580(Pt. 2):677-84, 2007.
Mulligan JD, Gonzalez AA, Kumar R, Davis AJ, Saupe KW. Aging elevates basal AMPK activity and eliminates hypoxic activation of AMPK in mouse liver. Journals of Gerontology 60A:1 21-27, 2005.