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  • Laura Woollett, PhD
  • Professor
  •  
  • Metabolic Diseases Institute
  • Phone: (513) 558-3969
  • laura.woollett@uc.edu

Specialty/Interest:

  • Our laboratory studies the pregnant female and their offspring (in utero and in adulthood). 
     
    Pregnancy is an inflammatory state.  The state is more severe when a female is obese.  Our goals are to understand how pregnancy and obesity interact to affect processes that change during gestation, such as glucose intolerance, inflammation, and altered lipid metabolism.  Recently, we have begun to study the multiparous female since in humans, as in rodents, multiparity is a risk factor for obesity and inflammation.  Our models will be useful tools to help delineate the causes of inability to loose weight post-partum in obese women.
     
    Recent studies show that offspring of obese females are at an increased risk to become obese in later life.  Thus, we are studying how obesity affects metabolism in the offspring at various stages of life, including the fetus, neonate, and adult.  Some of our studies analyze the offspring of multiparous females with marked obesity and inflammation in that affects in offspring will be independent of maternal diet.  

    Education/Credentials:

  • Bachelor of Science (chemistry): Miami University
  • Doctorate (biochemistry): Iowa State University

Peer Reviewed Publications (in chronological order):

  • Camarota, L., Woollett, L., & Howles, P. (2011). Reverse cholesterol transport is elevated in carboxyl ester lipase-knockout mice . FASEB J , 25 (4) , 1370-7.
  • Woollett, L.A. (2011). Transport of cholesterol across the placenta . Placenta , 32 , S218-21.
  • Rebholz S.L., Burke, K.T., Yang, Q., Tso, P., and Woollett, L.A. (2011). Dietary fat impacts fetal growth and metabolism: uptake of chylomicron remnant core lipids by the placenta . Am. J. Physiol. , May 17 , Epub ahead of print.
  • Kohli, R., Kirby, M., Setchell, K., Jha, P., Klustaitis, K., Woollett, L., Pfluger, P., Balistreri, W., Tso, P., Jandacek, R., Woods, S., Heubi, J., Tschoep, M., D'Alesso, D., Shroyer, N., & Seeley, R. (2010). Intestinal adaptation after ileal interposition surgery increases bile acid recycling and protects against obesity-related co-morbidities . Am. J. Physiol. , 299 (3) , G652-60.
  • Burke, K. T., Horn, P. S., Tso, P., Heubi, J. E., & Woollett, L. A. (2009). Hepatic bile acid metabolism in the neonatal hamster: expansion of the bile acid pool parallels increased Cyp7a1 expression levels . Am. J. Physiol. , 297 (1) , G144-51.
  • Burke, K. T., Colvin, P. L., Myatt, L., Graf, G. A., Schroeder, F., & Woollett, L. A. (2009). Transport of maternal cholesterol to the fetus is affected by maternal plasma cholesterol concentrations in the golden Syrian hamster . J. Lipid Res. , 50 (6) , 1146-55.
  • Jandacek, R. J., Rider, T., Yang, Q., Woollett, L. A., & Tso, P. (2009). Lymphatic and portal vein absorption of organochlorine compounds in rats . Am. J. Physiol. , 296 (2) , G226-34.
  • Jones, H.N., Woollett, L.A., Barbour, N., Prasad, P.D., Powell, T.L., Jansson, T. (2009). High fat diet prior to and during pregnancy causes marked up-regulation of placental nutrient transport and fetal overgrowth in C57/Bl6 mice . FASEB J , 23 , 271-278.
  • Jenkins, K. T., Merkens, L. S., Tubb, M. R., Myatt, L., Davidson, W. S., Steiner, R. D., & Woollett, L. A. (2008). Enhanced placental cholesterol efflux by fetal HDL in Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome . Mol. Genet. Metab. , 94 (2) , 240-7.
  • Woollett, Laura A (2008). Where does fetal and embryonic cholesterol originate and what does it do . Ann. Rev. Nutr. , 28 , 97-114.
  • Yao, L., Jenkins, K., Horn, P. S., Lichtenberg, M. H., & Woollett, L. A. (2007). Inability to fully suppress sterol synthesis rates with exogenous sterol in embryonic and extraembyronic fetal tissues . Biochim. Biophys. Acta. , 1771 (11) , 1372-9.
  • Yao, L., Horn, P. S., Heubi, J. E., & Woollett, L. A. (2007). The liver plays a key role in whole body sterol accretion of the neonatal Golden Syrian hamster . Biochim. Biophys. Acta. , 1771 (4) , 550-7.