Associate Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Email: odonnellcp@upmc.edu Phone: 412-692-2880 Fax: 412-692-2888 Assistant: Amy Jaworski, 412-692-2800 Research Program Dr. O’Donnell’s broad area of translational research is on the metabolic and cardiovascular complications of obstructive sleep apnea and obesity.  He has developed a murine model of specific sleep-induced hypoxia that results in brief acute periods of hypoxia in mice that occur only during sleep in a manner analogous to the clinical manifestations of obstructive sleep apnea in patients.  In ongoing studies, Dr. O’Donnell is using this model to explore the mechanistic basis for the development of insulin resistance in response to intermittent hypoxia, focusing on the role of sympathetic neural activation, the hypophyseal-pituitary-adrenal axis, obesity-related cytokines such as leptin, and systemic inflammation.  He is also examining the role of nitric oxide and leptin in the development of left ventricular hypertrophy in response to

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intermittent hypoxia.  Dr. O’Donnell has recently initiated studies examining the relationship between heart failure and impaired sleep using models of experimentally induced myocardial infarction (ligation of the main descending coronary artery) and a genetic model of murine heart failure in a cardiac specific TNFa overexpressing mouse.  An emerging theme of his work is that the development of a low-grade pro-inflammatory state links metabolic and cardiac dysfunction to intermittent hypoxia and disturbed sleep.  Dr. O’Donnell’s thesis is that the intermittent hypoxic stimulus of sleep apnea provokes a pro-inflammatory state that acts synergistically with the well-established inflammatory effects of obesity to exacerbate the metabolic syndrome. Leadership Positions and Honors Associate Editor, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2005-present Permanent Member of NIH study section on Respiratory Integrative Biology and Translational Research, 2006-present Representative Publications  O’Donnell CP, Schaub CD, Haines AS, Tankersley CG, Schwartz AR, Smith PL: Leptin prevents respiratory depression in obesity.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med 159:1477-1484, 1999. Campen MJ, Tagaito Y, Jenkins TP, Smith PL, Schwartz AR, O'Donnell CP: Phenotypic differences in the hemodynamic response during REM sleep in six strains of inbred mice. Physiol Genomics 11:227-234, 2002. Polotsky VY, Li J, Punjabi NM, Rubin AE, Smith PL, Schwartz AR, O’Donnell CP:  Intermittent hypoxia increases insulin resistance in genetically obese mice.  J Physiol 552:253-264, 2003. Polotsky VY, A.E. Rubin AE, A. Balbir A, T. Dean T, P.L. Smith PL, A.R. Schwartz AR, O’Donnell CP:    Intermittent hypoxia causes REM sleep deficits and decreases in EEG delta power in NREM sleep in the C57BL/6J mouse. Sleep Med 7:7-16, 2005. Li J, Thorne LN, Punjabi NM, Sun CK, Schwartz AR, Smith PL, Marino RL, Rodriguez A, Hubbard WC, O’Donnell CP, Polotsky VY:  Intermittent hypoxia induces hyperlipidemia in lean mice.  Circ Res 97:698-706, 2005.

Revised 5/16/2006  la/tc