Dr. Bogan's research interests are to understand and reduce the large number of pregnancies that are lost in humans and domestic animal species due to inappropriate regression of the ovarian corpus luteum (CL) during early pregnancy; and to investigate the links between ovarian processes and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. Bogan's research studies utilize an integrative physiology approach where experiments ranging from the molecular to whole organism level, in both animal and human models, are used to answer questions with translational implications.
Current studies include determining whether reductions in extracellular cholesterol uptake and increases in cholesterol efflux mediate luteolysis (regression of the CL) in an ovine model. As cholesterol is the precursor for all steroids including progesterone, and a reduction in progesterone production by the CL is obligatory for luteolysis to occur, limiting luteal cholesterol levels may represent a novel mechanism that mediates luteolysis in domestic animal species and could help explain the as-yet unidentified pathway that causes luteolysis in primates.
Additionally, Bogan is studying how ovarian processes affect circulating lipids, and consequently CHD risk, in women. While heart disease is the number one cause of death in women worldwide, premenopausal women have a lower risk of heart disease than men of the same age or postmenopausal women. This may be due, in part, to the more favorable lipid profile observed in premenopausal women. Thus, understanding how processes occurring during the menstrual cycle affect circulating lipids may help in the prevention and treatment of CHD in women of all ages.
