Peter Kao

Clinical Focus

• Pulmonary Disease
• Pulmonology (Lung) and Critical Care

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Lina Qiao

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Medicine

Current Research Interests

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our research program has several active projects:
1.) Pulmonary Vascular Disease – We are studying experimental hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease, aiming to determine the pathophysiologic mechanisms of disease progression, and to identify and develop novel antiproliferative strategies for prevention and treatment. Our group is the first to show that hydrophobic statins such as simvastatin, effectively prevent fatal pulmonary hypertension in rats, and reverse established pulmonary hypertension with neointimal vascular occlusion. The mechanisms of simvastatin’s efficacy involve inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells. A translational effort to human clinical trials has been initiated at Stanford. Colleague Dr. John Faul (Assistant Professor, PCCM) is directing a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of simvastatin for treatment of Primary Pulmonary Hypertension in the Stanford University Chest Clinic.
2.) Lung Inflammation and Regeneration – We are funded by the NIH to study the regulation of cytokine gene expression in bronchial epithelial cells. Inflammatory cytokines contribute to host defenses against pathogens introduced through the airways. Excessive host inflammation in the airways contributes to airway diseases such as asthma and COPD, and inappropriate host inflammatory responses contribute to bronchiectasis in cystic fibrosis and in nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. Together with colleague Dr. Stephen Ruoss (Associate Professor, PCCM), we are characterizing the role of cystic fibrosis gene mutations in susceptibility to nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary infections.
We are characterizing lung stem cells capable of self-renewal and of promoting lung regeneration after injury. For this project, we are collaborating with Dr. Judy Shizuru (Associate Professor, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Stanford), and Dr. Chris Contag, expert in imaging (Associate Professor,...

Publications

• Aerosolized amikacin for treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium infections: an observational case series. Davis KK, Kao PN, Jacobs SS, Ruoss SJ. BMC Pulm Med. 2007: 7 2
• Thrombin-activatable procarboxypeptidase B regulates activated complement C5a in vivo. Nishimura T, Myles T, Piliponsky AM, Piliposky AM, Kao PN, Berry GJ, Leung LL. Blood. 2007; 109 (5): 1992-7
• Dynamic binding of Ku80, Ku70 and NF90 to the IL-2 promoter in vivo in activated T-cells. Shi L, Qiu D, Zhao G, Corthesy B, Lees-Miller S, Reeves WH, Kao PN. Nucleic Acids Res. 2007; 35 (7): 2302-10
• NF90 regulates inducible IL-2 gene expression in T cells. Shi L, Godfrey WR, Lin J, Zhao G, Kao PN. J Exp Med. 2007; 204 (5): 971-7
• Prospective analysis of cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator mutations in adults with bronchiectasis or pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. Ziedalski TM, Kao PN, Henig NR, Jacobs SS, Ruoss SJ. Chest. 2006; 130 (4): 995-1002