Associate Professor
Oral Health and Systemic Disease Research Group
Phone: 502-852-8905
Fax: 502-852-4052
Email: dascot07@louisville.edu

Tobacco smoking, inflammation, and periodontitis

Periodontitis is a common inflammatory disease leading to the destruction of the supporting tissues of the teeth. Tobacco smoking is a critical risk factor. The mechanisms by which smoking contributes to increased susceptibility to periodontitis, and to systemic inflammatory diseases with common etiology, need to be clarified.

The major current research interests of my laboratory are:

- Mechanisms of tobacco smoke-induced alterations to effector functions of innate immune cells.

- The effects of tobacco smoke components on neutrophil differentiation.

- Development of Near- and Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy as potential diagnostic, prognostic, and research tools in tobacco-related periodontal diseases.

Recent publications

1. Rehani K, Scott DA, Renaud D, Hamza H, Williams LR, Wang H, Martin M. Cotinine-induced convergence of the cholinergic and PI3 kinase-dependent anti-inflammatory pathways in innate immune cells. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. In press (2008).
2. Liu K-Z, Sowa MG, Renaud DE, Man A, Singer DL, Scott DA. In vivo determination of multiple indices of periodontal inflammation by optical spectroscopy. J. Periodont. Res. In press (2008).
3. Xu M, Renaud DE, Liu K-Z. Scott JE, Bishop HR, Scott DA. Effects of nicotine on key effector function in differenting HL-60 cells. B.M.C. Cell Biol. In press (2008).
4. Liu KZ, Xu M, Scott DA. Biomolecular characterisation of leucocytes by infrared spectroscopy. Br. J. Haematol. 136:713-22 (2007).
5. Scott DA, Martin M. Exploitation of the nicotinic anti-inflammatory pathway for the treatment of epithelial inflammatory diseases. World J. Gastroenterol. 12:7451-9 (2006).

CURRENT AND RECENT FUNDING (2001-2008)

The financial support of the following bodies is gratefully acknowledged:

NIH (National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research)

Canadian Institutes for Health Research

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Centers for Disease Control

University of Louisville

MAJOR COLLABORATORS (CURRENT)

Dr. Kan-Zhi Liu, National Research Council, Canada

Dr. J. Elliott Scott, Oral Biology, University of Manitoba, Canada

Drs. Richard Palmer and Ron Wilson, King’s College London, England

Drs. Denis Kinane and Mike Martin, Oral Health and Systemic Disease Research Group

Graduate students

Graduate students who wish to pursue an M.Sc. or Ph.D. in oral biology are periodically accepted. Interested students should e-mail me directly.

Clinical graduate students who wish to consider undertaking the research component of their program in my laboratory should e-mail or call into the lab in person.