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Lawrence D. Brewer, PhD

Sr. Research Associate
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky, United States

My Ph.D. research investigated the organization of the interneuronal networks controlling the abdominal positioning system in crayfish using electrophysiological and morphological techniques in the laboratory of Dr. James L. Larimer at the University of Texas at Austin. I then joined the laboratories of Drs. Nada Porter and Philip Landfield at the University of Kentucky. Our research primarily concerns age-related cognitive decline and how steroid hormones, including vitamin D, affect brain aging. We have focused on vitamin D because age-related changes commonly occur to both vitamin D status and calcium-dependent processes in the brain. Using primary hippocampal cultures and hippocampal slices from young and aged animals we have found that vitamin D affects L-type calcium channel activity and gene expression, as well as synaptic activity. These results are especially important because age-related changes in L-type calcium channel activity is a physiological biomarker of brain aging. In addition, our studies have found that vitamin D enhances expression of a number of synaptic proteins. Further, placing mid-aged animals on a long-term enhanced vitamin D (cholecalciferol) diet prevented or significantly reduced cognitive decline in a hippocampal-dependent spatial memory task (Morris Water Maze). More recent studies indicate that vitamin D may affect cognitive processes in a sexually dimorphic manner. Another line of study has been investigating possible links between the gut microbiome, vitamin D and cognition. These studies have been supported by grants from the National Institute of Aging and have been published in several journals including the Journal of Neuroscience and PNAS.

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