UAB Human Physiology Core

Overview

Because diabetes is both a metabolic and a vascular disease, the Human Physiology Core was designed to promote interactions and collaborations oriented towards better understanding the pathophysiology of diabetes and cardiometabolic disease risk. To this end, the Human Physiology Core incorporates and combines expertise and technology for assessment of hormones and other analytes in both humans and animal models; body composition and fat distribution; insulin sensitivity and substrate metabolism; energy expenditure; and cardiovascular function. Assessments provided by the core are direct, sophisticated, state-of-the-art measures that utilize the most current technology available. Access to these services and technologies is designed to facilitate a sophisticated, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive approach to diabetes research and to provide common ground for collaboration and training.

Services

Serum analysis (clinical and animal models)

• Hormones and markers of inflammation. A broad suite of metabolic and reproductive hormones; multi-plex capabilities; markers of inflammation, adipokines, cytokines
• Glucose and lipids: Glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL-C, triglycerides (TG), and total free fatty acids

Human Energy Expenditure/Substrate Metabolism

• Total energy expenditure by doubly-labeled water
• Resting energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry
• 24-h energy expenditure by whole-room indirect calorimetry
• Local heat production by infra-red camera

Human Body Composition

• Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
• Body density by BodPod (Adult/child)
• Body density by PeaPod (Infant)
• Total body water by isotope dilution
• Multi-compartment models
• Bone quality by pQCT
• Fat distribution by portable ultrasound
• MRI/CT scan analysis

Human insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance testing

• Euglycemic clamp
• Intravenous glucose tolerance test
• Oral glucose tolerance test
• Mixed meal tolerance test
• Mathematical modeling

Human Cardiovascular Function

• Flow-mediated brachial artery dilatation (FMD)
• Impedance cardiography
• Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.