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Home > Healthcare Professionals > Research Awards > Researcher Profiles > Dr. Songling Liu

Dr. Songling Liu, MD

2008 New England Run for Research Liver Scholar. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. "Post-translational Regulation of Sinisoidal Endothelial Cell eNOS by the GPCR Interacting Protein GIT 1."


Dr. Songling Liu, MD

When the liver is injured, whether by viral hepatitis, alcohol exposure, or other factors, it often becomes harder for blood to pass through the liver. This leads to portal hypertension, or high blood pressure in the vessels in and around the liver. Portal hypertension can cause fluids to build up in the abdomen, trigger intestinal bleeding, or cause other serious complications.

Through her study, Dr. Liu aims to describe the exact mechanism by which liver injury leads to portal hypertension. She hypothesizes that the connection is nitric oxide, a substance that the body produces normally to reduce blood pressure by relaxing and widening blood vessels. In the liver, a type of cell called the sinusoidal endothelial cell (SEC) produces nitric oxide, using an enzyme called endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). But after a liver has been injured, its SECs produce less nitric oxide than before, leading to high blood pressure in the liver. Dr. Liu hopes to identify the reasons for this specific and crucial change. She believes that another protein, GIT1, is responsible for activating eNOS and that liver injury may change the activity of GIT1. The study will 1) examine how changes in GIT1 activity affect eNOS activity, 2) identify the molecular interaction between these two proteins, and 3) measure how GIT1 activity changes in rats with liver injury. Together, these parts of the study will contribute to a more complete picture of how and why portal hypertension develops in patients with liver injury.

Page updated: August 1st, 2008