Page 16 - SFRBMdot July 2015

Free Radicals Abroad

at the University of Rijeka, School of Medicine - Rijeka Croatia

by Dragica Bobinac, MD, Ph.D., Chair - Department of Anatomy

University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia, Based on our initial and reported data on rat kidney I/R model, 3 years

is located in a sunny Kvarner bay, in ago we got in touch with Professor Ines Batinic-Haberle from Duke

the beautiful northern corner of the University – a milestone in our oxidative stress-related development. Dr.

Adriatic coast, in the close vicinity Batinic-Haberle has developed Mn porphyrin-based therapeutics. She

of thousands of islands and only 80 made available two of those compounds of entirely different chemistry

km away from Italy. Our group is a and biology: meso-tetrakis (N-n-hexylpyridinium-2-yl) porphyrin,

part of the Department of Anatomy, MnTnHex-2-PyP5+) and Mn(III) meso-tetrakis (4-carboxylatophenyl)

School of Medicine. Our oxidative porphyrin (MnTBAP3-). We have tested those compounds in rat spinal

stress-related research is only cord I/R model and obtained quite intriguing data. We are presently

several years old. Early beginnings undergoing studies related to their mechanism(s) of action(s). This

involved the study of the inluence collaboration allowed our students and young faculty to be exposed

of bone morphogenetic proteins to and beneit from top research groups in the ield. A graduate

(BMPs) on epithelial tubular cells student from our group, Iva Vukelic, was awarded SFRBM Research
Iva Vukelic, Dragica Bobinac, Tanja Celic
during cold kidney ischemia. BMPs
Mini-Fellowship Grant which allowed her to stay 6 weeks in Professor

Rebecca Oberley Deegan’s Lab at the University of Nebraska Medical increased antioxidative capacity of the kidney tissue. Since treatment

Center. Iva studied new methods that could be implemented later in our with exogenous proteins reduced tissue damage we continued with

Lab. She has successfully completed a large part of the spinal cord I/R development of our experimental approaches hoping to understand

experiments there. Such collaborations carry potential to promote our how these proteins can be used in prevention of kidney tissue

research in Croatia and boost interests of students thereby increasing damage during long term cold ischemia. Such research is critical

opportunities for their careers.
for transplantation surgery. Though promising, the research has not

progressed because of the insuficient funding. While we were initially
We hope to motivate the scientists from abroad to visit our beautiful
encouraged by the University of Rijeka to ile a patent application,
Mediterranean city of Rijeka. Just few miles away is a charming resort

inancial situation disfavored such process. We have continued our
town Opatija which harbors hundreds of years of tradition in tourism,
research on the effects of Mn porphyrins on ischemic/reperfusion
dating back to imperial vacationing of the Austrian-Hungarian Court.
(I/R) injury of spinal cord. Based on good preliminary data we are now

proceeding with mechanistic studies. The group is led by Professor

Dragica Bobinac and besides graduate students it consists of basic

scientists and clinicians (anesthesiologists and urologists). University

of Rijeka is in a process of moving to a new Campus; there we will have

a new Vivarium with additional space for animal studies and larger and

better equipped Laboratories – the essential requirements to advance

our research.

SFRBM Newsletter // July 2015 // Free Radicals Abroad

1 6 IN THIS ISSUE V I S I T U S O N L I N E : W W W . S F R B M . O R G