Randall H. Renegar, Ph.D.

Professor

B.S., North Carolina State University
M.S., Michigan State University
Ph.D., University of Florida
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Florida

office: Brody 7W-39B
telephone: 252-744-2845
e-mail: renegarra@ecu.edu

| Research | Selected Publications | Staff and Students |

Research
Our laboratory's general research interests are the interactions between the uterus and fetus, and the control of uterine and placental secretory processes. Relaxin, a hormone of pregnancy, is involved in uterine growth and cervical softening and is expressed in placental trophoblast cells in the hamster. Relaxin has been isolated from placentae by this laboratory, and temporal expression in this tissue has been evaluated. Studies are ongoing to examine regulation of transcription, post-translational processing and secretion of this hormone by placental trophoblast cells. The diverse nucleotide and amino acid structure and tissue expression pattern of relaxin among mammalian species presents a unique opportunity to evaluate factors that regulate relaxin expression. Studies are currently underway to evaluate the 5' untranslated region of the relaxin gene from hamster (trophoblast expression) and mouse (ovarian expression) in a effort to identify response elements unique to each gene. Recent studies in the laboratory indicated that relaxin enters the fetal circulation during late pregnancy. Studies are in progress to identify possible relaxin binding sites in the developing fetus.

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Selected Publications

Renegar, R.A., C.R. Owens, D. Guoli, J.P. McMurtry, and S.C.M. Kwok. 2000. Expression and localization of prohormone convertase 1/3 (SPC3) in porcine ovary. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 57: 361-365. 

Renegar, R.A. and C.R. Owens. 2002. Measurement of plasma and tissue relaxin concentrations in the pregnant hamster and fetus using a homologous radioimmunoassay. Biol. Reprod. 67: 500-505.  

Alexandre, M.D., B.J. Jeansonne, R.H. Renegar, R. Tatum, and Y.-H. Chen. 2007. The first extracellular domain of claudin-7 affects paracellular Cl- permeability. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 357: 87-91.  

Renegar, R.A., J.M. Chalovich, B.D. Leinweber, J.T. Zary, and M.M. Schroeter. 2008. Localization of the actin-binding protein fesselin in chicken smooth muscle. Histochem. Cell Biol. 131: 191-196. 

Lehmann B.D., M.S. Paine, A.M. Brooks, J.A. McCubrey, R.H. Renegar, R. Wang, and D.M. Terrian. 2008. Senescence-associated exosome release from human prostate cancer cells. Cancer Res. 68: 7864-7871.

Staff and Students

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