Helen E. Collins Laboratory

Investigating Mechanisms Underlying Female Cardiovascular Resilience and Health

The Collins Laboratory


The Collins lab is located at the University of Louisville in the Center for Cardiometabolic Science (Formerly known as the Diabetes and Obesity Center). The Centers webpage is located at www.CenterforCardiometabolicScience.org

Historically, females have been understudied in the context of preclinical and clinical trials contributing to an overall reduced knowledge of basic female cardiovascular biology and also how the female heart responds to physiological and pathological stress. Therefore, the overall mission of the Collins lab is to understand the mechanisms contributing to female cardiovascular health and resilience

Under this larger thematic focus, the Collins lab has several areas of active investigation, they include:
Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to pregnancy-induced cardiac growth and its reversal.

Pathophysiological and etiological mechanisms of peripartum cardiomyopathy and other pregnancy-associated cardiovascular complications.

The response of the female heart to pathological stressors and mechanisms underlying sex-dependent changes in post-infarction remodeling.




Publications


Exercise-induced changes in myocardial glucose utilization during periods of active cardiac growth.


Fulghum KL, Collins HE, Lorkiewicz PK, Cassel TA, Fan TWM, Hill BG

J Mol Cell Cardiol, vol. 191, 2024, pp. 50-62


Guidelines for assessing maternal cardiovascular physiology during pregnancy and postpartum


Helen E Collins, Barbara T Alexander, Alison S Care, Margie H Davenport, Sandra T Davidge, Mansoureh Eghbali, Dino A Giussani, Martijn F Hoes, Colleen G Julian, Holly A LaVoie, I Mark Olfert, Susan E Ozanne, Egle Bytautiene Prewit, Junie P Warrington, Lubo Zhang, Styliani Goulopoulou

Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol , vol. 327(1), 2024, pp. H191-H220.


Guidelines for in vivo models of developmental programming of cardiovascular disease risk


Junie P Warrington, Helen E Collins, Sandra T Davidge, Jussara M do Carmo, Styliani Goulopoulou, Suttira Intapad, Analia S Loria, Jenny L Sones, Loren E Wold, Erin K Zinkhan, Barbara T Alexander

Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol , vol. 327(1), 2024, pp. H221-H241.


Cardiac mitochondrial metabolism during pregnancy and the postpartum period


Schulman-Geltzer EB, Fulghum KL, Singhal RA, Hill BG, Collins HE.

Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, vol. 326(5), 2024, pp. H1324-H1335


Coordinated Metabolic Responses Facilitate Cardiac Growth in Pregnancy and Exercise


Emily B Schulman-Geltzer, Helen E Collins, Bradford G Hill, Kyle L Fulghum

Curr Heart Fail Rep., 2023


View all

Contact


[Contact picture]

Helen E Collins, PhD, FAHA

Assistant Professor of Medicine


[email protected]; [email protected]


502-852-9157


Division of Environmental Medicine; Center for Cardiometabolic Science

University of Louisville

Delia Baxter Building, Room 321C, University of Louisville, 580 South Preston Street, Louisville, KY


Curriculum vitae