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Biographies

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High Res

Alexei A. Grom, MD

Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

Phone: 513-636-3339

Fax: 513-636-3328

Email: alexei.grom@cchmc.org

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Specialties

Visit the Grom-Thorton Lab.

Biography

The research of Alexei Grom, MD, has mainly involved two translational projects focused on two autoimmune diseases – systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile dermatomyositis. In both projects, recent advances of cellular immunology are applied to these diseases to promote better understanding of their pathogenesis and treatment.

Systemic Onset Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and an associated condition known as Macrophage Activation Syndrome are severe and often devastating illnesses. The pathological mechanisms are not known but Dr. Alexei Grom has focused his research on NK and cytotoxic cell function in this disease. The rationale for this approach has been based on the strong clinical similarities between MAS and the better understood autosomal recessive disorder familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, in which the uncontrolled proliferation of T cells and macrophages has been recently associated with decreased NK cell and cytotoxic cell functions secondary to mutations in the gene encoding perforin. Recent observations suggest as in FHLH, MAS patients also have profoundly depressed NK function. Moreover, a large subgroup of systemic JRA patients has very similar immunologic abnormalities. Combined with the evidence of the immunoregulatory role of NK cells in many immune responses, this suggests that NK dysfunction is relevant to the pathogenesis of MAS. New directions have thus been established for research in this poorly understood disease.

Juvenile Dermatomyositis is a chronic inflammatory condition involving primarily muscles and skin. The most characteristic feature of JDM is vascular damage associated with the capillary necrosis that eventually leads to capillary loss and tissue ischemia. The project is based on the hypothesis that capillary loss in this condition may be caused by angiostatic chemokines that are prominent in the inflammatory response in the affected muscles.

Education and Training

MD: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Pediatric Medical Institute, Russia, 1986.

Residency: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Medical Institute, Russia, 1988; Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1998.

Fellowship: Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Pediatric Medical Institute, Russia, 1991; Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1995.

Certification: Pediatrics, 1999.

Publications

View PubMed Publications

Barnes MG, Grom AA, Thompson SD, Griffin TA, Luyrink LK, Colbert RA, Glass DN. Biologic similarities based on age at onset in oligoarticular and polyarticular subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2010 Nov;62(11):3249-58.

Hinze CH, Fall N, Thornton S, Mo JQ, Aronow BJ, Layh-Schmitt G, Griffin TA, Thompson SD, Colbert RA, Glass DN, Barnes MG, Grom AA. Immature cell populations and an erythropoiesis gene-expression signature in systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: implications for pathogenesis. Arthritis Res Ther. 2010;12(3):R123.

Grom AA, Mellins ED. Macrophage activation syndrome: advances towards understanding pathogenesis. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2010 Sep;22(5):561-6. Review.

Thompson SD, Barnes MG, Griffin TA, Grom AA, Glass DN. Heterogeneity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: impact of molecular profiling based on DNA polymorphism and gene expression patterns. Arthritis Rheum. 2010 Sep;62(9):2611-5.

Filipovich A, McClain K, Grom A. Histiocytic disorders: recent insights into pathophysiology and practical guidelines. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2010 Jan;16(1 Suppl):S82-9.

Barnes MG, Grom AA, Thompson SD, Griffin TA, Pavlidis P, Itert L, Fall N, Sowders DP, Hinze CH, Aronow BJ, Luyrink LK, Srivastava S, Ilowite NT, Gottlieb BS, Olson JC, Sherry DD, Glass DN, Colbert RA. Subtype-specific peripheral blood gene expression profiles in recent-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Jul;60(7):2102-12.

Griffin TA, Barnes MG, Ilowite NT, Olson JC, Sherry DD, Gottlieb BS, Aronow BJ, Pavlidis P, Hinze CH, Thornton S, Thompson SD, Grom AA, Colbert RA, Glass DN. Gene expression signatures in polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis demonstrate disease heterogeneity and offer a molecular classification of disease subsets. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Jul;60(7):2113-23.

Zhang K, Biroschak J, Glass DN, Thompson SD, Finkel T, Passo MH, Binstadt BA, Filipovich A, Grom AA. Macrophage activation syndrome in patients with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis is associated with MUNC13-4 polymorphisms. Arthritis Rheum. 2008 Sep;58(9):2892-6.

Shishov M, Henrickson M, Burgos-Vargas R, Rubio-Pérez N, Baca V, Romero-Feregrino R, Solís-Vallejo E, Huang B, Grom AA, Lovell DJ. Systemic features and early prognostic factors in Hispanic and non-Hispanic children from the United States of America and Mexico with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2007 Nov-Dec;25(6):907-14.

Fall N, Barnes M, Thornton S, Luyrink L, Olson J, Ilowite NT, Gottlieb BS, Griffin T, Sherry DD, Thompson S, Glass DN, Colbert RA, Grom AA. Gene expression profiling of peripheral blood from patients with untreated new-onset systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis reveals molecular heterogeneity that may predict macrophage activation syndrome. Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Nov;56(11):3793-804.