Sporadic LAM: A Disease of Women

Pictured: Cystic Lung Destruction

The Henske Lab is now employing high-throughput screening methodologies to identify pathways relevant to the pathogenesis of LAM.

Shown here is a high-throughput drug screen to identify novel therapeutics that are lethal to TSC2-null, angiomyolipoma-derived, smooth muscle cells.

Developing relevant in vivo models is essential to identifying disease pathways involved in LAM.

Shown here is a xenograft tumor model of LAM in mice, developed in the Henske lab. This model was utilized to demonstrate that estrogen promotes the survival and metastatic spread of LAM-like, smooth muscle cells to the lung (Yu, Henske PNAS 2010).

Understanding how benign-appearing LAM cells metastasize throughout the body is of great interest to the Henske Lab as well as researchers in the field.

Shown here is a hypothetical model of LAM cell metastasis (Yu, Henske Lymph Res Biol 2010).

The Henske Lab utilizes folliculin-null cells as an in vitro model of Birt Hogg Dube, in an effort to identify how mutations in the BHD gene lead to the various clinical manifestations, including lung cysts, renal carcinoma and fibrofolliculomas. We hope that this work will lead to the identification of therapeutic targets for this disease.

Identifying how LAM cells metastasize to the lung is an ongoing field of study in the Henske lab.

Shown here are H&E and Smooth Muscle Actin images of a LAM nodule from a patient with LAM. We rely on patient samples to further our understanding of the disease mechanisms that contribute to LAM and identify potential therapeutic agents.

Henske Lab Members

2015

LAM Clinical Research Team

Pictured: (left-right, top-bottom)
Dr. Philip Camp, Pierre Debrosse, Dr. Souheil El-Chemaly, Dr. E. Danielle Morse, Dr. G. Matt Hunninghake, Dr. Ivan Rosas, Melissa Smith, Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Petri Henske, Dr. Hilary Goldberg, Elizabeth (Betsy) Peters

Dr. Elizabeth Henske in 2007, in front of a quilt given to her by women with LAM