Center for Metabolic Health

The Center for Metabolic Health (CMH) was founded in 2018 as a collaborative unit that includes individuals from multiple disciplines, sections and departments with common interests in metabolic disease. The CMH comprises faculty members from the Department of Medicine and several basic science departments at BUSM.

The CMH founders and leaders include Barbara E. Corkey, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine and Caroline Apovian, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center.

The CMH members are located throughout the campus but the main site of operations is on the 8th floor of the Evans Biomedical Research Center at 650 Albany Street. The CMH serves as a nidus for collaborative studies, mentoring and educational events.

Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, PCOS and vascular stiffening all reflect metabolic disorders involving aberrant lipid handling and elevated fasting insulin levels.  Research at the CMH focuses on testing a coordinated systemic mechanism for improvement of metabolic health that can be manipulated through diet and drugs to normalize lipid handling and insulin levels.

The overall goal of the CMH is to enhance translation to clinical practice of basic science and enhance basic understanding of metabolic disease in human subjects. 

Contact information:

Main Office
650 Albany Street, Rm. 808
Phone: (617) 358-6820
Fax: (617) 638-7124

Members:

Caroline Apovian, MD, Chief, Clinical Medicine

Tamar Aprahamian, PhDChief, Basic Science

Lynn Moore, DScChief, Study Design

Core Services:

Under development

Recent Publications:

  • Gharakhanian R, Su S and Aprahamian T (2019) Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A Deficiency in Perivascular Adipose Tissue Impairs Macrovascular Function. Front. Physiol. 10:687. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00687
  • Pino EC, Zuo Y, Maciel De Olivera C, Mahalingaiah S, Keiser O, Moore LL, Li F, Vasan RS, Corkey BE, Kalesan B. (2018) Cohort profile: The MULTI sTUdy Diabetes rEsearch (MULTITUDE) consortium. BMJ Open. May 05; 8(5):e020640.
  • Long MT, Gurary EB, Massaro JM, Ma J, Hoffmann U, Chung RT, Benjamin EJ, Loomba R. (2018) Parental non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increases risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in offspring. Liver Int. Sep 04.
  • Lee JJ, Pedley A, Hoffmann U, Massaro JM, Levy D, Long MT. (2018) Visceral and Intrahepatic Fat Are Associated with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Above Other Ectopic Fat Depots: The Framingham Heart Study. Am J Med. Jun; 131(6):684-692.e12.
  • Long MT, Benjamin EJ. (2018) Prevalent Cardiovascular Disease Events and T1 Mapping Defined Hepatic Fibrosis. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. Mar; 11(3):e007553.
  • Lee JJ, Pedley A, Hoffmann U, Massaro JM, O’Donnell CJ, Benjamin EJ, Long MT. (2018) Longitudinal Associations of Pericardial and Intrathoracic Fat With Progression of Coronary Artery Calcium (from the Framingham Heart Study). Am J Cardiol. Jan 15; 121(2):162-167.
  • Lee JJ, Pedley A, Therkelsen KE, Hoffmann U, Massaro JM, Levy D, Long MT. Upper Body Subcutaneous Fat Is Associated with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors. Am J Med. 2017 Aug; 130(8):958-966.e1.
  • Taylor E, Huang N, Bodde J, Ellison A, Killiany R, Bachschmid MM, Hamilton J. (2018 ) MRI of atherosclerosis and fatty liver disease in cholesterol fed rabbits. J Transl Med. Aug 1;16(1):215.
  • Ma J, Hwang SJ, Pedley A, Massaro JM, Hoffmann U, Chung RT, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Fox CS, Long MT. (2017) Bi-directional analysis between fatty liver and cardiovascular disease risk factors. J Hepatol. Feb; 66(2):390-397.
  • Shao D, Han J, Hou X, Fry J, Behring JB, Seta F, Long MT, Roy HK, Cohen RA, Matsui R, Bachschmid MM. (2017) Glutaredoxin-1 Deficiency Causes Fatty Liver and Dyslipidemia by Inhibiting Sirtuin-1. Antioxid Redox Signal. Aug 20;27(6):313-327.
  • Apovian CM, Singer MR, Campbell WW, Bhasin S, McCarthy AC, Shah M, Basaria S, Moore LL. (2017) Development of a Novel Six-Month Nutrition Intervention for a Randomized Trial in Older Men with Mobility Limitations. J Nutr Health Aging. 21(10):1081-1088.
  • Velazquez A, Apovian CM, Istfan NW. (2017) The Complexities of Iron Deficiency in Patients After Bariatric Surgery. Am J Med. Jul;130(7):e293-e294.
  • Han J, Weisbrod RM, Shao D, Watanabe Y, Yin X, Bachschmid MM, Seta F, Janssen-Heininger YMW, Matsui R, Zang M, Hamburg NM, Cohen RA. (2016) The redox mechanism for vascular barrier dysfunction associated with metabolic disorders: Glutathionylation of Rac1 in endothelial cells. Redox Biol. Oct;9:306-319.
  • Istfan N, Anderson WA, Apovian C, Ruth M, Carmine B, Hess D. (2016) Racial differences in weight loss, hemoglobin A1C, and blood lipid profiles after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. Surg Obes Relat Dis. Aug;12(7):1329-1336.
  • Apovian CM, Istfan NW. (2016) Ethnic and racial disparities in the behavioral, pharmacologic, and surgical treatment of obesity. Endocr Pract. Nov;22(11):1347-1349.
  • Wang, H., Liu, L., Lin, JZ., Aprahamian, TR., Farmer, SR. Browning of White Adipose Tissue with Roscovitine Induces a Distinct Population of UCP1+ (2016) Cell Metab. Dec 13;24(6):835-847.
  • Apovian CM, Istfan NW. (2016) Obesity: Guidelines, Best Practices, New Research. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. Sep;45(3):xvii-xviii.
  • Apovian CM. (2016) Obesity: definition, comorbidities, causes, and burden. Am J Manag Care. Jun;22(7 Suppl):s176-85.
  • Apovian, CM. (2016) The Obesity Epidemic–Understanding the Disease and the Treatment. N Engl J Med. Jan 14;374(2):177-9.
  • Karki S, Farb MG, Myers S, Apovian C, Hess DT, Gokce N. Effect of Bariatric Weight Loss on the Adipose Lipolytic Transcriptome in Obese Humans. Mediators Inflamm. 2015:106237.
  • Hua N, Chen Z, Phinikaridou A, Pham T, Qiao Y, LaValley MP, Bigornia SJ, Ruth MR, Apovian CM, Ruberg FL, Hamilton JA. (2014) The influence of pericardial fat upon left ventricular function in obese females: evidence of a site-specific effect. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. May 23;16:37.
  • Ruth MR, Port AM, Shah M, Bourland AC, Istfan NW, Nelson KP, Gokce N, Apovian CM. (2013) Consuming a hypocaloric high fat low carbohydrate diet for 12 weeks lowers C-reactive protein, and raises serum adiponectin and high density lipoprotein-cholesterol in obese subjects. Metabolism. Dec;62(12):1779-87.
  • Wikstrom, J., Mahdaviani, K., Sereda, S, Si, Y., Liesa, M., Las, G., Twig, G., Corkey, B., Cannon, B., Nedergaard, J. and Shirihai, O. (2014) Hormone-induced mitochondrial fission is utilized by brown adipocytes as an amplification pathway for energy expenditure. EMBO J doi:10.1002/embj.201385014.
  • Simmons, AL., Schlezinger, JJ and Corkey, B. E. (2014) What are we putting in our food that is making us fat? Food additives, contaminants, and other putative contributors to obesity.  Current Obesity Reports, In press
  • Husni, N.R., Jones, IV, A.R., Simmons, A.L. and Corkey, B. E. (2014) Fibroblasts From Type 1 Diabetics Exhibit Enhanced Ca2+Mobilization after TNF or Fat Exposure. PLoS One, 9(1): e87068
  • Wang F., Deeney J.T., & Denis, G.V. (2013) Chapter 3: Brd2 gene disruption causes “metabolically healthy” obesity: epigenetic and chromatin-based mechanisms that uncouple obesity from type 2 diabetes,  Horm. 91:49-75.
  • Chakrabarti, P., Kim, J-Y, Singh, M., Shin, Y-K., Kim, J., Kumbrink, J., Wu, Y., Lee, M-J., Kirsch, K.H., Fried, S.K., and Kandror, K.V.  (2013) Insulin inhibits lipolysis in adipocytes via the evolutionarily conserved mTORC1-Egr1-ATGL-mediated pathway,  Cell. Biol., 33(18): 3659-3666.
  • Huang, G., Buckler-Pena, D., Nauta, T., Singh, M., Asmar, A., Shi, J., Kim, J. Y., and Kandror, K.V. (2013) Insulin responsiveness of glucose transporter 4 in 3T3-L1 cells depends on the presence of sortilin.   Biol. Cell, 24(19):3115-3122.
  • Mansuy-Aubert V, Zhou QL, Xie X, Gong Z, Huang JY, Khan AR, Aubert G, Candelaria K, Thomas S, Shin DJ, Booth S, Baig SM, Bilal A, Hwang D, Zhang K, Lovell-Badge R, Smith SR, Awan FR, Jiang ZY. (2013) Imbalance between neutrophil elastase and its inhibitor α1-antitrypsin in obesity alters insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and energy expenditure. Cell Metab.2013 Apr 2; 17(4):534-48. PMID:23562077
  • Kim, J-Y. & Kandror, K.V. The first luminal loop confers insulin responsiveness to the glucose transporter 4.  (2012)  Biol. Cell, 23(5):910-917.
  • Corkey, B. E. (2012) Banting lecture 2011 Hyperinsulinemia: Cause or Consequence?  61:4-13.
  • Corkey, B. E. and Shirihai, O. (2012) Metabolic Master Regulators: Sharing Information among Multiple Systems, Trends Endocrinol Metab. 23(12):594-601.
  • Corkey, B. E. (2012) Diabetes: Have we got it all Wrong? Insulin Hypersecretion and Food Additives: Cause of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes? Diabetes Care. 35(12):2432-2437.
  • Saadeh M., Ferrante T.C., Kane A., Shirihai O., Corkey B.E. and Deeney J.T. (2012) Reactive oxygen species stimulate insulin secretion in rat pancreatic islets: studies using mono-oleoyl-glycerol. PLOS One e30200.
  • Krawczyk, S. A., Haller, J. F., Ferrante, T., Zoeller, R. A. and Corkey, B. E.  (2012) Reactive Oxygen Species Facilitate Translocation of Hormone Sensitive Lipase to the Lipid Droplet During Lipolysis in Human Differentiated Adipocytes. PLoS One; 7(4):e34904.