Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Discipline

Dr. Ann Snyder graduated from Pennsylvania State University.  She earned an M.S. in 1968 and a PhD in 1971 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, both in Physiology. Following postdoctoral work at Duke University Medical School, in Durham, North Carolina and Rush Medical School in Chicago, Illinois she joined the Endocrine and Metabolic Research Program of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in North Chicago, Illinois as a Research Physiologist.

She joined the faculty of the Chicago Medical School as a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1989 and was appointed Research Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology in 1996. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007.  She has been an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Basic Biomedical Sciences of the Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine since 2007.

Research

Glial and neuronal glucose transport and metabolism; Neurotoxic effects of alcohol; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Fuel-mediated teratogenesis

Interactions between alcohol and carbohydrate metabolism may have profound effects in the developing and the mature individual. Our past research utilizing a rat model of the fetal alcohol syndrome has shown effects on placental glucose transfer and on circulating and tissue glucose levels and the hormonal environment. We have also demonstrated effects of alcohol on glucose uptake and utilization using invitro systems, including brain cell cultures from fetal and neonatal rats and whole rat embryos cultured during organogenesis. The goal of our current studies is to characterize changes are induced by alcohol in the expression of glucose transporter genes during organogenesis, in brain cell cultures and in the neonatal rat brain and to relate these effects to alterations of glucose n utilization and cell functionality and viability.

SELECTED Publications 

• : Effects of ethanol on DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis in rat astrocyte cultures.  Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res 16:295 300, 1992
• : Effects of ethanol on glucose utilization by cultured mammalian embryos.  Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res 16:466 470, 1992
• : Effects of ethanol on glucose transporter expression in cultured hippocampal neurons. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 19:1398-1402,1995
• : AUUUA-specific mRNA binding proteins in astrocytes. Life Sci 58:2083-2089, 1996
• : Effects of ethanol on GLUT1 protein and gene expression in rat astrocytes. Metabolic Brain Disease 11:343-357, 1996
• : Flow cytometric analysis of glucose transport by rat brain cells. Cytometry 27:262-268, 1997
• : Omega oxidation of monocarboxylic acids in rat brain. Neurochem Res 23:227-233, 1998
• : Functional expression of TREK-2 K+ channel in cultured rat brain astrocytes. Brain Res. 931:56-67, 2002
•  Astroglial plasticity and glutamate function in a chronic mouse model of Parkinson's disease. Exp Neurol. 190:145-156, 2004
•  The Role of Organic Osmolytes in the Response of Cultured Astrocytes to Hyperosmolarity. Am J Ther. 18:366-370, 2011.

Book Chapters

• Snyder AK, Singh SP, Ehmann S: Effects of ethanol on substrate uptake and incorporation in primary astrocyte cultures. In: Lancaster F, ed Alcohol and Glial Cells.  Research Monograph No. 27, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD, 1994
• Snyder AK: Responses of glia to alcohol.  In The Role of Glia in Neurotoxicity, Aschner M, Kimelberg H, eds, CRC Press, 1996

Links

• Calculate blood alcohol concentration on the basis of number and type of drinks, gender, body weight, and time from first drink 
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 
• Research Society on Alcoholism 
• IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, including list of radical names