Neurobiology, Arrythmias, Heart failure

The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in the initiation and maintenance of arrhythmias. My research efforts focus on developing a detailed understanding of the basic mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias. My labs overall goal is to develop neuromodulation therapies to treat arrhythmias as the degree of sympatho-excitation has been related to arrhythmias and sudden death. To this end, my lab has developed expertise in large and small animal models of heart failure and post-myocardial infarction VT, which closely mimics human conditions. We have shown that within the sympathetic neurons of the stellate ganglia, which is physically removed from the heart but is intricately involved in efferent regulation of cardiac function that there is significant structural and functional remodeling. We have established within both the porcine model of myocardial infarction and in humans with ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, that neurochemical properties in these neurons are changed. My lab has expertise in a variety of in vivo and ex vivo techniques such as cardiac viral injections in mouse and pigs, multi-electrode and transmural cardiac electrical mapping, cardiovascular autonomic reflexes, neural recordings, neural networks, tissue clearing for confocal and super-resolution imaging and most recently RNAseq and its associated bioinformatic tools. 

Publications: 

• Yoshie K, Rajendran PS, Massoud L, Mistry J, Swid MA, Wu X, Sallam T, Zhang R, Goldhaber JI, Salavatian S, Ajijola OA. Cardiac TRPV1 afferent signaling promotes arrhythmogenic ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction. JCI Insight. 2020 13;5(3):e124477. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.124477.
• Ajijola OA, Hoover DB, Simerly TM, Brown TC, Yanagawa J, Biniwale RM, Lee JM, Sadeghi A, Khanlou N, Ardell JL, Shivkumar K. Inflammation, oxidative stress, and glial cell activation characterize stellate ganglia from humans with electrical storm. JCI Insight. 2017 21;2(18):e94715. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.94715. eCollection 2017 Sep 21.
• Ajijola OA, Lux RL, Khahera A, Kwon O, Aliotta E, Ennis DB, Fishbein MC, Ardell JL, Shivkumar K. Sympathetic modulation of electrical activation in normal and infarcted myocardium: implications for arrhythmogenesis. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2017 1;312(3):H608-H621. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00575.2016. Epub 2017 Jan 13.
• PubMed Bibliography link (optional)  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=ajijola&sort=date

PI Contact information:          

• Email: OAjijola@mednet.ucla.edu
• Lab Website Link: https://ajijolalab.dgsom.ucla.edu/pages/