Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Manitoba Institute of Child Health
601 John Buhler Research Centre
715 McDermot Avenue
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB
Tel: 204-789-3559
email: dolinsky@cc.umanitoba.ca

Research Focus:

My research is focused on the mechanisms that predispose youth for the development of obesity, diabetes and related cardiovascular disorders.

The World Health Organization estimated that 17 million people die annually from cardiovascular diseases globally, more than from any other cause of death. In the U.S., cardiovascular disease accounts for 1 in 3 of all deaths. Of significant concern is the growing number of individuals who are overweight or obese, since diseases such as diabetes are associated with obesity. Currently, 150 million individuals in the U.S. are overweight and 18 million have been diagnosed with diabetes as well as a further 7 million have undiagnosed diabetes, representing a total of approximately 11% of the population. Obesity and diabetes are important predictors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, particularly left ventricular hypertrophy, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and renal failure. This is particularly important in light of the fact that the rising incidence of overweight and obese children that are developing diabetes presents a significant clinical problem for the future.

My research program studies how complications during pregnancy increase the risk for early-onset obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the offspring. One of the most common complications during pregnancy is diabetes, which results in high blood sugar and insulin levels in pregnant mothers. These and additional factors have major effects on the growth and development of the fetus. My research explores the biological processes that cause children from pregnancies complicated by diabetes to be at higher risk for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life. I am currently developing animal models to study this phenomenon.

The research projects also involve molecular biology approaches to study the fundamental mechanisms that program whole body energy homeostasis and cardiovascular function during pregnancy. This research also involves testing pharmacologic interventions and gene therapies to treat these metabolic disorders both during pregnancy and following birth. Working as an interdisciplinary team with population health researchers and clinicians at the Manitoba Institute of Child Health, we hope that the outcome of these experiments will be new treatments and better follow-up care for both mothers and children.

Selected Recent Publications: (total of 26 peer-reviewed publications)

1. *DOLINSKY V.W., *Rueda-Clausen, C.F., Morton, J.S., Davidge, S.T. and Dyck, J.R.B. Continued postnatal administration of resveratrol prevents diet-induced metabolic syndrome in rat offspring born growth restricted. Diabetes. 60: 2274-2284 (2011). *These authors contributed equally to this work.
   
   
2. *Rueda-Clausen, C.F., *DOLINSKY V.W., Morton, J.S., Proctor, S., Dyck, J.R.B., and Davidge, S.T. lntrauterine growth restriction increases the susceptibility of rats to high fat diet induced metabolic syndrome. Diabetes. 60: 507-516 (2011). *These authors contributed equally to this work.
   
   
3. DOLINSKY V.W. and Dyck, J.R.B. Calorie restriction and resveratrol in cardiovascular health and disease. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1812: 1477-1489 (2011). REVIEW
   
   
4. Cole, L.K., DOLINSKY V.W., Dyck, J.R.B., and Vance, D.E. Impaired phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis reduces atherosclerosis and prevents lipotoxic cardiac dysfunction in ApoE-/- mice. Circulation Res. 108: 686-694 (2011).
   
   
5. DOLINSKY, V. W., Morten, J.S., Oka, T., Robillard-Frayne, I., Lopaschuk, G.D., DesRosiers, C., Walsh, K., Davidge, S.T. and Dyck, J.R.B. Calorie restriction prevents hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. Hypertension 56: 412-421 (2010).
   
   
6. Wei, E., Ben Ali, Y., Lyon, J., Wang, H., Nelson, R., DOLINSKY, V. W., Dyck, J.R.B., Mitchell, G., Korbutt, G.S. and Lehner, R. Triacylglycerol hydrolase/ carboxylesterase 3 ablation decreases blood lipids, improves glucose tolerance and increases energy expenditure. Cell Metabolism 11: 183-193 (2010).
   
   
7. Koonen, D.P., Sung, M.M., Kao, C.K., DOLINSKY, V. W., Koves, T.R., Jacobs, R.L., Vance, D.E., Light, P.E., Muoio, D.M., Febbraio, M. and Dyck, J.R. Alterations in Skeletal Muscle Metabolism Predispose Middle-aged Mice to Diet-induced Insulin Resistance. Diabetes 59: 1366-1375 (2010).
   
   
8. DOLINSKY, V. W., Chan, A.Y., Robillard-Frayne, I., Light, P.E., DesRosiers, C. and Dyck, J.R.B. Resveratrol prevents the pro-hypertrophic effects of oxidative stress on LKB1. Circulation 119: 1643-52 (2009).
   
   
9. Chan, A.Y., DOLINSKY, V. W., Soltys, C.L., Viollet, B., Baksh, S., Light, P.E. and Dyck, J.R.B. Resveratrol inhibits cardiac hypertrophy via AMP-activated protein kinase and Akt. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 24194-24201 (2008).
   
   
10. DOLINSKY, V. W., and Dyck, J.R.B. Role of AMP-activated protein kinase in healthy and diseased hearts. Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 291:H2557-H2569 (2006). REVIEW
    
    
11. Gerin, I., DOLINSKY, V. W., Shackman, J.G., Kennedy, R.T., Chiang, S.-H., Burant, C.F., Steffensen, K.R., Gustafsson, J.-A. and MacDougald, O.A. LXRb is required for adipocyte growth, glucose homeostasis and b cell function. J. Biol. Chem. 280: 23024-23031 (2005).