Kathleen Keef

Department: Physiology and Cell Biology
Academic Unit:  School of medicine
Title: Professor
Professional degrees (Degree, year, Institution):
Ph.D. 1980 University of California at Los Angeles

Contact Information

Mail Stop: 352
Phone:  775-784-4302
Fax: 775-784-6903
e-mail: kkeef@medicine.nevada.edu

Research Area(s)

Cell Biology,  Neurobiology,  Physiology,  Pharmacology

Research Interests

Since my arrival at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1987 my work has focused primarily upon the ionic mechanisms underlying the control of smooth muscle contraction. This work has included studies of both vascular and visceral smooth muscles. We have studied a variety of different pathways which regulate smooth muscle contraction including the actions of autonomic and enteric nerves and their associated post-junctional receptors, pacemaker activity and stretch dependent myogenic responses. To investigate these pathways a number of different approaches are used. At the whole tissue level both contractile and electrical activity are measured using strain gauges and intracellular microelectrode techniques. These results are then used to direct more mechanistic studies of the underlying ionic conductances using whole-cell and isolated patch recording techniques on isolated smooth muscle myocytes. Immunohistochemical and western blot techniques are also used to examine relevant proteins and their spatial localization.   In recent years this work has been extended to include studies directed toward identifying unique splice variants of channels that are present in tissues. In some cases channels have been cloned and expressed in heterologous expression systems to identify their biophysical characteristics and to further explore the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of the channel.

Current Graduate Students

Caroline Cobine

Other Lab Members

Becky Brookfield
Jacob Stever

Selected Publications

Farrelly, A.M.,  S. Ro,  B. Callaghan,  N. Fleming, B. Horowitz, K.M. Sanders and K.D. Keef.   Expression and function of KCNH2 (HERG) in the human jejunum.   Am. J. Physiol., 284(6):G883-95, 2003.

Callaghan, B., Koh, S.D. and Keef, K.D.  Muscarinic M2 receptor stimulation of  Cav1.2b requires PI3K, PKC and c-Src.   Circ. Res.  94(5):626-333, 2004.

Callaghan, B, Zhong, J and Keef, K.D.  Signaling pathway underlying the stimulation of L-type Ca2+ channels in rabbit portal vein myocytes by recombinant Gβγ subunits. Am.J.Physiol. Heart Circ Physiol. 291(5):H2541-6.  2006. 

Cobine, C.A.,  Callaghan, B. and  Keef, K.D. Role of L-type calcium channels and PKC in active tone development in rabbit coronary artery.  Am. J. Physiol.  Heart Circ. Physiol. 292(6):H3079-88, 2007. 

McDonnell, B., Hamilton,  R., Fong, M.,  Ward, SM and Keef, KD.  Functional evidence for purinergic inhibitory neuromuscular transmission in the mouse IAS.  Am. J. Physiol. GI,   294(4):G1041-51, 2008.