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Faculty Detail Faculty Entry   
Name DENNIS F KUCIK  
Campus Address KAUL 664 Zip 6823
Phone 205-934-0062
E-mail kucik@uab.edu" id="FacultyDetail1EmailAddress"><a href="mailto:kucik@uab.edu">kucik@uab.edu</a>
URL
 
 

Department Affiliations(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Center  Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases Center  Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases Center Associate Professor
Center  Medicine  Comprehensive Diabetes Ctr Associate Professor
Primary  Pathology   Pathology Administration Associate Professor

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Kucik graduated with Honors from UW-Madison in 1982. He then earned his MD and PhD as an MSTP student at Washington University in St. Louis, studying how cells rearrange their adhesion molecules to locomote. Working with Elliot Elson, PhD, and Michael Sheetz, PhD, he helped to develop the technique of Single Particle Tracking to understand membrane protein movements in living cells. Also as part of his thesis, he published one of the earliest studies using the Laser Tweezers for biological experiments. As a Howard Hughes Fellow with Eric J. Brown, MD, Dr. Kucik directly demonstrated for the first time how integrins rearrange to modulate leukocyte adhesion. At UAB since 1997, he has continued to push the frontiers of technology to understand cell adhesion and cell behavior in the bloodstream. Clinically, Dr. Kucik works as a Staff Pathologist at University Hospital, and is Chief of Pathology at the Birmingham VA Medical Center.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists  Membership Committee  http://depts.washington.edu/lmaclps/ 
American Association of Blood Banks    www.aabb.org 
American Society for Cell Biology    www.ascb.org 
American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology  Membership Committee  http://asgsb.org/ 
American Society for Investigative Pathology    www.asip.org 
American Society for Investigative Pathology    www.asip.org 
Biophysical Society    www.biophysics.org 
Committee on Space Research     http://cosparhq.cnes.fr/ 
Radiation Research Society    www.radres.org 
 

Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Radiation-induced atherosclerosis and regulation of leukocyte adhesion
Description
White blood cell adhesion to blood vessel walls constitutes an essential early step in the defense against infection, without which an immune response cannot develop. On the other hand, too much adhesion can lead to atherosclerosis and other major health problems. Using a flow-cell system that mimics conditions in the blood vessel, dynamic adhesion is analyzed by high-time-resolution digital imaging and computer analysis. Cultured endothelium and leukocytes from knockout mice enable us to define the functions of specific adhesion molecules. This work is also important to understand how cancer cells metastasize to distant sites via the bloodstream.
In a separate project, we are working to understand how increased endothelial adhesiveness contributes to the mechanism of radiation-induced atherosclerosis. As part of a NASA project to determine the cardiovascular risk of long duration space flight, our lab conducts experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory using ion beams to simulate cosmic radiation. The consequences for both mice an cultured endothelial cells are then determined to understand the risk not only of cosmic radiation exposure, but of therapeutic radiation, occupational exposure, and other forms of terrestrial radiation as well.

Postdoc Positions Available
Date Posted Position Title
No records
 

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Wu X, Yu T, Bullard DC, Kucik DF. SDF-1&#945; (CXCL12) regulation of lateral mobility contributes to activation of LFA-1 adhesion. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2012 Aug 8. [Epub ahead of print]  22875786 
Khaled S, Gupta KB, Kucik DF. Ionizing radiation increases adhesiveness of human aortic endothelial cells via a chemokine-dependent mechanism. Radiat Res. 2012 May;177(5):594-601.   22087741 
Kucik D.F., R. L. Rouleau, L. W. Smith, X. Wu and K. B. Gupta. Use of an integrated flow-chamber adhesion assay for measuring leukocyte adhesion properties in simulated and actual microgravity. Grav. & Space Biol. 2006 19(2):125-126.   
Yu, T., Wu, X., Gupta, K.B., and Kucik D.F. Affinity, lateral mobility and clustering contribute independently to beta2-integrin-mediated adhesion. American Journal of Physiology 2010, 299(2):C399-410.   
Yu, T., Yu, S., Parks, B.W., Gupta, K., Wu, X., Khaled, S. Chang, P.Y., Srivastava, R., Kabarowski, J. H. S., and D.F. Kucik. Iron-ion irradiation accelerates atherogenesis in the Apo-E mouse model. Radiat Res., Radiat Res. 2011 Jun;175(6):766-73.  21466380 
Ni, N., Kevil, C.G., D.C. Bullard, and D.F. Kucik. Avidity Modulation activates leukocyte-endothelium adhesion under flow and requires cooperativity among adhesion receptors. Biophys. J. 2003 85:4122-4133.  14645099 
Kevil, C.G., D.C. Bullard, and D.F. Kucik. High temporal- and spatial-resolution analysis demonstrates that ICAM-1 modulates monocyte adhesion by stabilizing slow rolling. Am. J. Physiol. 2003 Jul;285(1):C112-8.  12637264 
Kucik, DF. Rearrangement of integrins in avidity regulation by leukocytes. Immunol. Res. 2002 26:219-226  12403358 
Monica Montagnani, M, I. Golovchenko, I. Kim, G. Y. Koh, M. Goalstone , D.F. Kucik, M. Quon, and B. Draznin, Inhibition of the Phosphatydilinositol 3-Kinase-dependent Branch of Insulin Signaling Enhances Mitogenic Action of Insulin in the Endothelial Cells. J. Biol. Chem., 2002. 177:1794-1799.  11707433 
Zhou, X, Li, J. and DF Kucik. The microtubule cytoskeleton participates in control of ?2 integrin avidity. J. Biol. Chem. 2001, 276:44762-44769  11579083 
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Keywords
leukocytes, integrins, selectins, cytoskeleton, adhesion, flow, radiation, atherosclerosis, biophysics

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