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Ann Baldwin

Research Professor

Ph.D. Imperial College, University of London 1979
M.Sc. The Middlesex Hospital, University of London 1976
B.Sc. University of Bristol, UK 1975

Contact Information

Address: Department of Physiology
College of Medicine
University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ 85724-5051
Phone: (520) 318-7170
Email: abaldwin@u.arizona.edu


Website: http://www.physiology.arizona.edu/index.php/baldwin_lab

Research Interests

I am interested in the effects of environmental stress on animal and human physiology and in ways of reducing the deleterious effects of stress. I am especially interested in the validity of animal models in research, particularly the use of rodents, including transgenic and knock-out mice. Rodents are extremely sensitive to the environment in institutional animal facilities, and factors such as noise, ultrasound, cage size and cage enrichment (or lack of) significantly affects animal physiology, and hence experimental data. In my research I am investigating the effects of these environmental factors on cardiovascular function (heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability) using radiotelemetry, responses of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (automated blood sampling technique for continuous measurement of corticosterone), microvascular permeability (intravascular injection of fluorescent tracers and intravital microscopy) and intestinal epithelial and microvascular integrity (electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry). A major goal of this work is to obtain data for improving the design of animal facilities and animal care procedures in order to provide valid and robust animal models for research.

A second goal is to determine the cellular mechanisms mediating the effects of environmental stress on the autonomic nervous system and the HPA-axis.

A third goal is to investigate the efficacy of energy healing in reducing the effects of stress in rodents, monkeys and humans. Energy healing is based upon the belief that changes in the "life force" of the body, including electromagnetic fields, affect human health and can promote healing. I am most familiar with the form of energy healing called Reiki, which is used in some hospitals in the USA, to reduce pain and to speed up the healing process. Two additional techniques that I use for Reikii experiments are measurements of peripheral blood flow (laser Doppler perfusion imager) and measurements of the skin conductance response.

Graduate Program Affiliations

Biomedical Engineering

Physiological Sciences

Publications

Burke TK Teng X Patel RP Baldwin AL. Jul 2006. Effects of S-nitrosation on hemoglobin-induced microvascular damage. Antioxid Redox Signal, 8:1093-101

Baldwin AL. Jan 2006. Mast cell activation by stress. Methods Mol Biol, 315:349-60

Baldwin AL, Primeau RL, Johnson WE. Jan 2006. Effect of noise on the morphology of the intestinal mucosa in laboratory rats. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci, 45:74-82

Baldwin AL, Schwartz GE. Jan 2006. Personal interaction with a Reiki practitioner decreases noise-induced microvascular damage in an animal model. J Altern Complement Med, 12:15-22

Burwell AK Baldwin AL. Jan 2006. Do audible and ultrasonic sounds of intensities common in animal facilities affect the autonomic nervous system of rodents?. J Appl Anim Welf Sci, 9:179-200

Alberding JP, Baldwin AL, Barton JK, Wiley E. Aug 2005. Effects of pulsation frequency and endothelial integrity on enhanced arterial transmural filtration produced by pulsatile pressure. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 289:H931-7

Baldwin AL, Demaria L, Wiley EB. Jan 2005. Effects of phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotide on hemoglobin-induced damage to intestinal mucosa. Artif Cells Blood Substit Immobil Biotechnol, 33:163-86

Baldwin AL. Dec 2004. Blood substitutes and redox responses in the microcirculation. Antioxid Redox Signal, 6:1019-30

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