Ray W. Poppleton Research Chair

Director, Center for Brain & Spinal Cord Repair

Associate Professor
Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics
Department of Neuroscience

Contact Information:

Office:
786 Biomedical Research Tower
460 W. 12th Ave.

Columbus, Ohio 43210
Ph. (614) 688-8576
E-Mail: phillip.popovich.@osu.edu

Laboratory:
770 Biomedical Research Tower
460 W. 12th Ave.

Columbus, Ohio 43210
Ph. (614) 688-5425

Research Interest:
My laboratory is working to define how cells and mediators of the immune system influence cell survival and repair in the diseased or injured central nervous system (CNS) with a major focus on models of spinal cord injury. Although inflammation is a normal and perhaps necessary response to tissue trauma, this response can also harm neurons and glia. Our goal is to learn how to "control" the deleterious aspects of inflammation while simultaneously promoting the "beneficial or reparative" properties of immune cells. By doing so, novel therapeutic strategies can be developed to promote tissue reconstruction, neural regeneration, and/or remyelination in the CNS.

Equipment and Techniques:
Spinal cord injury modeling, immunohistochemistry and state-of-the-art microscopy (light/fluorescence/dark-field/confocal) and image analysis (with stereology), laser-capture micro-dissection, behavioral analysis of locomotor and sensory function, neuroanatomical tract tracing, cell culture (neuronal/glial/macrophage/lymphocyte), FACS analysis, targeted leukocyte depletion, in situ hybridization, animal models of CNS autoimmune disease (e.g. EAE), lymphocyte phenotype and functional assays, basic molecular biology (e.g., PCR).

Selected Publications:
POPOVICH, P.G. and Hickey, W.F. Bone-marrow chimeric rats reveal the unique distribution of resident and recruited macrophages in the contused rat spinal cord, J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol., 60(7) 676-685, 2001.

Jones, T.B., Basso, D.M., Sodhi, A., Pan, J.Z., Hart, Hart, R.P., MacCallum, R.C., Lee, S., Whitacre, C.C., POPOVICH, P.G. Pathological central nervous system autoimmune disease is triggered by traumatic spinal cord injury: implications for autoimmune vaccine therapy, J. Neuroscience, 22: 2690-2700, 2002.  

Hayes, K.C., Hull, T.C.L., Delaney, G.A., Potter, P.J., Sequeira, K.A.J., Campbell, K., POPOVICH, P.G.  Elevated serum titers of proinflammatory cytokines and CNS autoantibodies in patients with chronic spinal cord injury, J. Neurotrauma, 19(6): 753-761, 2002.

POPOVICH, P.G., Guan, Z., McGaughy, V., Fisher, L., Hickey, W.F., Basso, D.M..  The neuropathological and behavioral consequences of intraspinal microglial/macrophage activation, J. Neuropathol Exp. Neurol., 61(7):623-633, 2002.

POPOVICH, P.G. and Jones, T.B. Manipulating neuroinflammatory reactions in the injured spinal cord: back to basics. Trends Pharmacol. Sci., 24(1):13-17, 2003.

P.G. POPOVICH, van Rooijen, N., Hickey, W.F., Preidis, G., McGaughy, V. Hematogenous macrophages express CD8 and distribute to regions of cavitating pathology after spinal cord injury. Exp. Neurol, 182, 275-287, 2003 (doi:10.1016/S0014-4886(03)00120-1).

Sroga, J.M., Jones, T.B., McGaughy, V., POPOVICH, P.G. Rats and mice exhibit distinct inflammatory responses after spinal cord injury, J. Comp. Neurol, 462(2):223-240, 2003.

Jones, T.B., Ankeny, D.P., Guan, Z., McGaughy, V., Fisher, L., Basso, D.M., POPOVICH, P.G. Passive or active immunization with myelin basic protein impairs neurological function and exacerbates neuropathology after spinal cord injury in rats. J. Neurosci., 24(15) 3752-3761, 2004.

Jones, T.B., McDaniel, E.E., POPOVICH, P.G. Inflammatory-mediated injury and repair in the traumatically injured spinal cord. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 11(10) 1223-1236, 2005.

Jones, T.B., Hart, R.P., POPOVICH, P.G. Molecular control of physiological and pathological T-cell recruitment to the injured mouse spinal cord. J. Neurosci., 25(28) 6576-6583, 2005.

Kigerl, K.A., McGaughy, V.M., POPOVICH, P.G. A comparative analysis of lesion development and inflammation in four strains of mice following spinal contusion injury, J. Comp. Neurol., 494(4) 578-594, 2006.

Pasterkamp, R.J., Dai, H. Terman, J.R., Wahlin, K., Kim, B., Bregman, B.S., POPOVICH, P.G., Kolodkin, A.L. MICAL flavoprotein monooxygenases: expression in the developing and adult rat nervous system and following spinal cord injuries, Mol. Cell. Neurosci, 31(1),52-69, 2006.

Kigerl, K and POPOVICH, P, Drug evaluation: ProCord – a potential cell-based therapy for spinal cord injury, IDrugs, 9(5): 354-360, 2006.

Basso, D.M., Fisher, L.C., Anderson, A.J., Jakeman, L.B. McTigue, D.M., POPOVICH, P.G. The Basso Mouse Scale for Locomotion (BMS) Detects Differences in Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury in Five Common Mouse Strains. J. Neurotrauma, 23(5) 635-659, 2006.

Crutcher, K.A., Gendelmen, H.E., Kipnis, J, Perez-Polo, J.R., Perry, V.H., POPOVICH, P.G., Weaver, L.C. Debate: Is increasing neuroinflammation beneficial for neural repair. J. Neuroimmune Pharm. 1(3) 195-211, 2006.

Ankeny, D.P., Lucin, K.L., Hart, R.P., Sanders, V.M., POPOVICH, P.G. Spinal cord injury triggers pathological autoantibody synthesis: evidence for systemic and intraspinal B cell activation and differentiation, J. Neurochemistry, 99(4)1073-87, 2006.

Gray, M. POPOVICH, P.G., van Rooijen, N., Gupta, R. Macrophage depletion alters the blood nerve barrier without affecting Schwann cell function after neural injury, J. Neurosci Res., 85(4)766-77, 2007.

Kigerl, K.A., Rivest, S. Hart, R.P., Satoskar, A.R., POPOVICH, P.G. Toll-like receptor (TLR)-2 and TLR-4 regulate inflammation, gliosis, and myelin sparing after spinal cord injury, J. Neurochemistry, Epub ahead of print (doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.2007.04524.x.), 2007. 

Ankeny, D.P. and POPOVICH, P.G. CNS and non-CNS antigen vaccines exacerbate neuropathology caused by nerve injury, European J. Neuroscience, 25(7):2053-64, 2007.

Longbrake, E.E., Lai, W. and POPOVICH, P.G. Characterization and  modeling of monocyte-derived macrophages after spinal cord injury, J. Neurochemistry, Epub ahead of print (doi: 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2007.04617.x), 2007.

Lucin, K.M., Sanders, V.M., Jones, T.B., Malarkey, W.B., POPOVICH, P.G. Impaired antibody synthesis after spinal cord injury is level-dependent and is due to sympathetic nervous system dysregulation, Experimental Neurology, Epub ahead of print  (10.1016/j.expneurol.2007.05.019) 2007.