Projects
Survival of the Fittest: On how to enhance recovery from critical illness through learning from evolutionary conserved catabolic pathways KU Leuven
Since a few decades, human patients who suffer from severe illnesses or multiple trauma, conditions that were previously lethal, are being treated in intensive care units (ICUs). Modern intensive care medicine bridges patients from life-threatening conditions to recovery with use of mechanical devices, vasoactive drugs and powerful anti-microbial agents. By postponing death, a new unnatural condition, intensive-care-dependent prolonged (>1 ...
The role of glucagon and endocrine FGFs in orchestrating the complex endocrine and metabolic responses to critical illness KU Leuven
Critically ill patients who need vital organ support to avoid imminent death develop remarkable endocrine and metabolic changes that have been related with morbidity and risk of death. Neuroendocrine changes affect growth hormone, thyroid hormone and cortisol, among others. Metabolic changes include mitochondrial dysfunction, low cholesterol, high triglyceride and bile acid levels, and disturbed glucose homeostasis manifested by insulin ...
Calcium and bone homeostasis in acute and prolonged critical illness. KU Leuven
2. The objective of our research is to unravel 2.1. the pathogenesis and physiopathology of hypocalcaemia and hypercalcaemia in critical illness and the mechanisms that control calcium fluxes in and out of serum during critical illness 2.2. The pathogenesis and physiopathology of Bothyper resorption in critical disease, including the effect of bone resorption inhibitors 2.3. the pathogenesis and physiopathology of 25OHD3 and 1.25 (OH) 2D3 ...
Muscle epigenetics and long-term physical outcome after critical illness KU Leuven
Critically ill patients require vital organ support to avoid imminent death. Among other complications, they are at high risk of developing muscle weakness, associated with delayed weaning from mechanical ventilation, prolonged or incomplete rehabilitation and even death. Survival improved with advances in intensive care. However, a substantial proportion of the patients continue to experience adverse consequences long after hospital ...
Epigenetic modifications induced by critical illness with the muscle as paradigm KU Leuven
We aim to demonstrate those epigenetic changes during critical illness, to examine how they are affected by metabolic factors, to study their long-term
persistence and their relation with functional status. Understanding the underlying molecular events will provide new opportunities for treatment and reduce the
burden of critical illness. In this project, we will use datasets and biopsy materials from 3 groups of intensive care ...
ICU-FM: design and validation of a fasting mimicking diet for the critically ill: Extending the borders of autophagy-activation and monitoring and broadening the beneficial application of nutrition restriction in acute illness. KU Leuven
Bone loss in critical illness: from molecular pathways to in vivo analysis. KU Leuven
Advances in intensive care medicine have enabled patients to survive life-threatening insults through mechanical and/or pharmacological vital organ support. However, approximately 30% of all patients do not recover from these acute conditions within a few daysand evolve towards a phase of prolonged critical illness. This chronic phase is a ...