Pingchang Yang

, PhD

Assistant Professor
Pathology and Molecular Medicine

Division: Molecular Medicine

St. Joseph's Healthcare
Brain-Body Institute, Room T3330
Hamilton, Ontario
905-522-1155 ext 32747, 32934
yangp@mcmaster.ca

Education and Professional Standing

• PhD Medicine, Hunan Medical University, 1990

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Interests

With the long-term goal of better understanding the role of the intestinal mucosa in health and disease, my main research area focuses on the relationship of skewed immune responses and inflammation in the intestinal mucosa, that involves brain and gut interaction, intestinal mucosa immune regulation, allergic mediators signal transduction and protein regulatory mechanisms, antigen transepithelial transport and intestinal epithelial barrier functions.

Research Methods

Intestinal allergic reaction animal model; brain-gut interaction animal model; small animal surgery; intestinal epithelial cell line culture model; histopathology; electron microscopy; computerized image analysis; intestinal tissue ultrastructure quantitative assay; quantitative immunohistochemistry; nucleotide acid assay; protein assay; antigen specific immune cells generation and cloning; Ussing chamber technique; in vivo antigen tracing; in vitro allergic reaction model and in vitro psychological stress model.

Key Words

Intestine; Mucosal immunity; Mast cell; Hypersensitivity; Immune inflammation; Ion transport; Permeability; Immunophysiology; Neuro-intestinal immunology; Psychological stress.

Research support

1, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

2, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

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Research Team

Research Assistant

Xiao Chen

Postdoctoral Fellows

Tongli Li, Chunhua Song,Yun Du, Ali Sayed

Graduate Students

Natasha Nurtanio, Hong Song

Selected Publications

• Feng BS, Chen X, Li P, Zheng PY, Chong J, Chao DB, He SH, Tang SG, Yang PC*. Expression of integrin alphavbeta6 in the intestinal epithelial cells of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. North Am J Med Sci 2009; 1: 200-204.
• Zheng PY, Feng BS, Oluwole C, Struiksma S, Chen X, Li P, Tang SG, Johan D. Söderholm JD, Yang PC*. Psychological stress induces eosinophils to produce corticotrophin releasing hormone in the intestine. Gut. 2009; 58:1473-9.
• Chen X, Zheng PY, Feng BS, Chong J, Tang SG, Yang PC*. A novel mechanism by which microbial products induce and perpetuate immune inflammation in the intestine. Am J Pathol 2008;173:1647-1656.
• Feng BS, Chen X, He SH, Zheng PY, Foster JA, Xing Z, Bienenstock J, Yang PC*. Disruption of TIM1/TIM4 interaction as a therapeutic strategy in a DC-induced peanut allergy model. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2008; 122:55-61.
• Yang PC*, He SH, Zheng PY. Investigation into the signal transduction pathway via which heat stress impairs intestinal epithelial barrier function. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2007;22:1823-31.
• Yang PC*, Xing Z, Berin MC, Solderholm JD, Feng BS, Wu L, Yeh C. TIM-4 expressed by mucosal dendritic cells plays a critical role in food antigen specific Th2 differentiation and intestinal allergy. Gastroenterology. 2007; 133:1522-33.
• Feng BS, He SH, Zheng PY, Wu L, Yang PC*. Mast cells play a crucial role in Staphylococcus aureus peptidoglycan-induced diarrhea. Am J Pathol 2007; 171: 537-547.
• Wu L, Feng BS, He SH, Zheng PY, Croitoru K, Yang PC*. Bacterial peptidoglycan breaks down intestinal tolerance via mast cell activation; the role of TLR2 and NOD2. Immuno Cell Biol; 2007; 85: 538-45.
• Liu T, He SH, Zheng PY, Zhang TY, Wang BQ, Yang PC*. Staphylococcal enterotoxin B increases TIM4 expression in human dendritic cells that drives naive CD4 T cells to differentiate into Th2 cells. Mol Immunol. 2007; 44: 3580-3587.
• Liu T, Wang BQ, Zheng PY, He SH, Yang PC*. Rhinosinusitis derived Staphylococcal enterotoxin B plays a possible role in the pathogenesis of food allergy. BMC Gastroenterology 2006, 6:24
• Liu T, Wang BQ, Wang CS, Yang PC*. Concurrent exposure to thermal stress and oral Ag induces intestinal sensitization in the mouse by a mechanism of regulation of IL-12 expression. Immunol Cell Biol 2006; 84: 430-439.
• Yang PC*, Wang CS. Heat stress increases protein antigen transport across the intestinal epithelium via a mechanism of impairing proteolytic enzymatic activity. Dig Dis Sci. 2006 May;51(5):1003-11.
• Yang PC, Jury J, Soderholm JD, Sherman PM, McKay DM, Perdue MH. Chronic psychological stress in rats induces intestinal sensitization to luminal antigens, Am J Pathol 2006;168 104-114.
• Jacob C, Yang PC, Darmoul D, Amadesi S, Cottrell GS, Saito T, Singh P, Grady EF, Perdue MH, Bunnett NW. Mast cell tryptase controls paracellular permeability of the intestine: role of protease-activated receptor 2 and -arrestines. J Biol Chem 2005; 280: 31936-31948.
• Yang PC, Berin MC, Yu L and Perdue MH. Mucosal Pathophysiology and Inflammatory Changes in the Late Phase of the Intestinal Allergic Reaction in the Rat. American Journal of Pathology. 2001;158: 681-690.
• Yang PC, Berin MC, Yu LC, Conrad DH, Perdue MH. Enhanced intestinal transepithelial antigen transport in allergic rats is mediated by IgE and CD23. J Clin Invest. 2000 Oct;106(7):879-86.

*correspondence author