Gross Lab
Principal Investigator
Gil Gross, MD
Post-docs, Fellows
Fumiak Suto
Research Technologist
Jiahua Jiang
PhD Student
Galina Kichigina
Students
Miriam Tsao
Robert Wu
Research Activities
My clinical expertise in paediatric cardiology, with a special interest in arrhythmias, gives me an excellent vantage point for investigation of the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying normal and disturbed heart rhythm. Since my arrival at Sick Kids, my laboratory associates and I have developed a novel model of acquired heart block with compensated ventricular bradycardia. This model now provides the primary focus for our investigation of ventricular electrical remodeling in the setting of chronic bradycardia.
We use techniques ranging from implantable real time wireless ECG telemetry to whole cell patch clamp study of repolarizing currents in isolated ventricular myocytes. My laboratory incorporates two complete, state-of-the-art patch clamp set-ups including temperature control, multi-drug perfusion, gas superfusion, and programmed electrical stimulation capabilities. Additional techniques used in the laboratory include Langendorff heart perfusion and cardiac myocyte isolation, real time PCR, and Western immunoblotting.
My co-investigators and I are particularly interested in defining the earliest manifestations and progression of electrical remodeling, and in relating the onset of electrocardiographically detectable changes to alterations in regulation and expression of cardiac myocyte potassium channels.
Publications
Dong-sheng G, Wei-yi F, Chiu-Man C, Kirsh J, Gross G, Hamilton RM: QT hysteresis in long-QT syndrome children with exercise testing. Chinese Medical Journal 2007: 120: pp 179-82.
Akikusa JD, Feldman BM, Gross GJ, Silverman ED, Schneider R: Sinus bradycardia following intravenous 'pulse' methylprednisolone. Pediatrics 2007: 119: pp e778-82.
Suto F, Zhu W, Chan A, Gross GJ: IKr and IKs remodeling differentially affects QT interval prolongation and dynamic adaptation to heart rate acceleration in bradycardic rabbits. American Journal of Physiology/Heart & Circulatory Physiology 2007: 292: pp H1782-8.
Bronzetti G, Chiu C, Stephenson EA, Gross GJ, Hamilton RM, Dongsheng G, Neilson AL, Kirsh JA: Simultaneous wide and narrow QRS complex tachycardias in a child: What is the mechanism? Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology 2006: 17: pp 1-3.
Gross GJ: Bradycardia-mediated ventricular electrical remodeling. Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology 2006: 17: pp S178-82.
Gross GJ, Chiu CC, Hamilton RM, Kirsh JA, Stephenson EA: Natural history of postoperative heart block in congenital heart disease: Implications for pacing intervention. Heart Rhythm 2006: 3: pp 601-4.
Anand N, McCrindle BW, Chiu-Man C, Hamilton RM, Kirsh JA, Stephenson E, Gross GJ: Chronotropic incompetence in young patients with late postoperative atrial flutter: A case-control study. European Heart Journal 2006: 27: pp 2069-73.
Harris KC, Potts JE, Fournier A, Gross GJ, Kantoch MJ, Cote J-M, Sanatani S: A multicenter study of right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia in children. Journal of Pediatrics 2006: 149: pp 822-6.
Kirsh JA, Gross GJ, O'Connor S, Hamilton RM: Transcatheter cryoablation of tachyarrhythmias in children: Initial experience from an international registry. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2005: 45: pp 133-6.
Suto F, Zhu W, Cahill SA, Greenwald I, Navarro AC, Gross GJ: Ventricular rate determines early bradycardic electrical remodeling. Heart Rhythm 2005: 2: pp 293-300.
Costantini DL, Arruda EP, Agarwal P, Kim K-H, Zhu Y, Zhu W, Lebel M, Cheng CW, Park CY, Pierce SA, Guerchicoff A, Pollevick GD, Chan TY, Kabir MG, Cheng SH, Husain M, Antzelevitch C, Srivastava D, Gross GJ, Hui C-C, Backx PH, Bruneau BG: The homeodomain transcription factor Irx5 establishes the mouse cardiac ventricular repolarization gradient. Cell 2005: 123: pp 347-58.
Cahill SA, Gross GJ: Propafenone and its metabolites preferentially inhibit IKr in rabbit ventricular myocytes. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 2004: 308: pp 59-65.
Levitas A, Gross G, Zucker N, Zalzstein E: Positional cyanosis in infants: Unusual presentation of right-sided cardiac masses. Cardiology in the Young 2004: 14: pp 46-9.
Zalzstein E, Hamilton R, Zucker N, Levitas A, Gross G: Presentation, natural history, and outcome in children and adolescents with double orifice mitral valve. American Journal of Cardiology 2004: 93: pp 1067-9.
Lee C, Dhalla NS, Le HD, Isaac M, Choptiany P, Gross G, Omelchenko A, Matsuda T, Baba A, Takahashi K, Hnatowich M, Hryshko LV: Inhibitory profile of SEA0400 assessed on the cardiac Na+-Ca2+ exchanger, NCX1.1. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 2004: 311: pp 748-57.
Books/Chapters in Books
- Hamilton RM, Silverman ED, Gross GJ, and Kirsh JA: Congenital Heart Block. In: The Natural and Modified History of Congenital Heart Disease (Freedom RM, Yoo S-J, Mikailian H, and Williams WG, eds). Blackwell Publishing, Inc, New York 2004: pp 562-8.
- Hamilton RM, Gross GJ, and Kirsh JA: Supraventricular Arrhythmias. In: The Natural and Modified History of Congenital Heart Disease (Freedom RM, Yoo S-J, Mikailian H, and Williams WG, eds). Blackwell Publishing, Inc, New York 2004: pp 575-86.
- Gross GJ, Zhu W, Chiu C, Hamilton RM, and Kirsh JA: Ventricular Tachycardia. In: The Natural and Modified History of Congenital Heart Disease (Freedom RM, Yoo S-J, Mikailian H, and Williams WG, eds). Blackwell Publishing, Inc, New York 2004: pp 587-96.
- Dillenburg R, Kirsh JA, Gross GJ, and Hamilton RM: Long QT Syndrome. In: The Natural and Modified History of Congenital Heart Disease (Freedom RM, Yoo S-J, Mikailian H, and Williams WG, eds). Blackwell Publishing, Inc, New York 2004: pp 569-74.
- Gilbert JD, McCartney DG, Cahill SA, and Gross GJ: Repolarization effects and torsades de pointes in rabbit ventricles perfused with sedating and nonsedating H1-receptor antagonists. In: Proceedings of the American Heart Association Scientific Conference on Ventricular Fibrillation:A Pediatric Problem (abstract) Seattle, Washington 1998.
- Gross GJ and Castle NA: Propafenone inhibits repolarizing currents in human atrial myocytes. In: Proceedings of the Noble Symposium/Mammalian Atrial and AV Node Electrophysiology Meeting (abstract) Banff, AB 1996.
Contact Information
Admin Assistant
Theresa Braggs
e-mail: theresa.braggs@sickkids.ca
Mailing Address
The Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Ave.
McMaster Bldg., Room 7003C
Toronto, ON M5G 1X8
Tel.: (416) 813-7326
Fax: (416) 813-5857
e-mail: gil.gross@sickkids.ca