I obtained my Ph.D. degree from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel, under the direction of Prof. Shimon Gatt. Since then I have considered myself a genuine lipohile. In 1971 I moved to the University of California in Los Angeles to train on aspects of lipid disorders (with Dr. J. Menkes) and work on elongation and desaturation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (with Dr. J. Mead). Along with my spouse, Dr. Z. Yavin, I developed a now widely-used approach for growing primary cerebral cortex cells on poly-L-lysine precoated dishes (J. Cell Biol., 1973). In 1973, I joined the Shriver Center for Mental Retardation in Waltham, Mass. During this time, I studied in collaboration with Dr. J. Kanfer. the metabolic regulation of phospholipid biosynthesis in the cell culture model which I developed. This work culminated in a series of papers published in J. Biol. Chem. (1975-1977) which examined the metabolic routes of polar head groups in phospholipids.
In 1975, I joined as Senior Scientist, the then emerging Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, under the leadership of Prof. U. Littauer. As a lipid neurochemist, I continued to use primary cerebral cells to study the ontogeny of complex gangliosides. From 1979 to 1981, I spent a sabbatical at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. Working in the laboratory of Dr. L. Kohn, we documented an essential role of gangliosides in the binding and internalization of tetanus toxin in neuronal cell cultures. During this time I continued to investigate the metabolic regulation of polar head groups and fatty acids of membrane phospholipids in cell cultures. In the late 'eighties, this research took a new direction, as we set to examine the role of phospholipid-derived second messengers (i.e. arachidonic acid, eicosanoids and diacylglycerol) in utero in the developing rat brain, under normal and stress conditions. For that purpose, I established an experimental animal model which involved transient obstruction of the maternal-fetal blood circulation (J. Neurochem., 1988). Since the levels of both arachidonic acid and diacylglycerol in the fetal brain were markedly increased during this stress, a relationship between these lipid derivatives and protein kinase C activation followed by down regulation (J. Biol. Chem., 1988; J. Neurochem., 1990, 1991, 1995) was established. During those years I gained great mentorship and fruitful scientific ideas through the collaboration with Dr. N. Bazan from the Louisiana State University in New Orleans.
In my laboratory at the Weizmann Institute, with the assistance of both students and postdoctoral fellows and through sabbatical stays with Drs. G. Guroff and R. Quarles from the Child Health Institute, NIH, I have used a number of neural-derived cell cultures to investigate the ontogeny, functional expression and neuritogenic potential of complex gangliosides. We found that in addition to stimulating neurite outgrowth, exogenous gangliosides increased expression of the mRNA encoding for tubulin and in PC12 and C6 glioma cells, gangliosides stimulated secretion of several distinct glycoproteins (J. Neurochem., 1986, 1991).
Presently, my research interests focus on the molecular processes triggering oxidative stress in the fetal brain after ischemic damage and in stimulating apoptotic death in cells in culture. Specific emphasis is given to the role of docosahexaenoic acid and other lipid mediators during intrauterine life in protecting the fetal brain from damaging lipid peroxides formation.
My services to the scientific community include serving as chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute, as Secretary of the European Society for Neurochemistry, as member on the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids and in addition as a member of the Editorial Boards of several Journals.
Green P, Kamensky B, and Yavin E. Replenishment of docosahexaenoic acid content in phospholipids of n-3 fatty acid-deficient fetuses by intraamniotic ethyl-docosahexaenoate administration. J. Neurosci. Res. 48, 264-272, 1997.
Yavin E and Marie Billia D. Death in early postmitotic cerebral cortex cells after transient oxygen and glucose deprivation is apoptotic. J. Neurosci. Res. 47, 471-478, 1997.
Glozman S, and Yavin E. Lipid peroxides are generated by fetal rat brain after episodes of global ischemia in utero. Neurochem. Res. 22,201-208, 1997.
Gil C , Ruiz-Meana M., Álava M., Yavin E, and Aguilera J. Tetanus toxin induces reversible protein kinase C translocation and increases polyphosphoinositide hydrolysis in rat cerebral cortex preparations J. Neurochem. 70, 1636-1643, 1998.
Glozman S, Green P and Yavin E. Intraamniotic ethyl-docosahexaenoate administration protects fetal rat brain from ischemic stress. J. Neurochem. 70, 2484-2491, 1998.
Brand A, Gil S, Leibfritz D, and Yavin E. Direct administration and utilization of [1-13C] glucose by fetal brain and liver tissues under normal and ischemic conditions: 1H, 31P and 13C NMR studies. J. Neurosci. Res. 54, 97-108, 1998.
Green P and Yavin E. Mechanisms of docosahexaenoic acid accretion in the fetal brain. J. Neurosci. Res. 52, 129-136. 1998.
Kameshwar-Rao A.S.V.R., Richter-Landsberg C, Seger R, Givol D and Yavin E. H2O2-Induced apoptotic death in serum-deprived cultures of oligodendroglia origin is linked to cell differentiation. J. Neurosci. Res. 56, 447-556, 1999.
Uberti D, Yavin E, Gil S, Kameshwar-Rao A, Goldfinger N and Rotter V. Hydrogen peroxide induces nuclear translocation of p53 and apoptosis in cells of oligodendroglia origin. Mol. Brain Res. 65, 167-175, 1999.
Green P, Glozman S, Kamensky B and Yavin E. Developmental changes in rat brain membrane lipids and fatty acids - the preferential prenatal accumulation of docosahexaenoic acid J. Lipid Res. 40, 960-966, 1999.
Glozman S, Green P, Kamensky B, Weiner L, and Yavin E. Et-DHA administration during intrauterine life enhances prostanoid production and reduces free radicals generation in the fetal rat brain Lipids 34, s247-248, 1999.
Brand A, Gil S and Yavin E. N-Methyl bases of ethanolamine prevent apoptotic cell death induced by oxidative stress in cells of oligodendroglia origin. J. Neurochem. 74, 1596-1604, 2000.
Koudinova NV, Koudinov AR and Yavin E. Alzheimer's A[beta]1-40 peptide modulates lipid synthesis in neuronal cultures and intact rat fetal brain under normoxic and oxidative stress conditions. Neurochem. Res. 25, 653-660, 2000.
Glozman S, Cerruti-Harris C, Groner Y and Yavin E. Docosahexaenoic acid-deficient phosphatidyl serine and high [alpha]-tocopherol in a fetal mouse brain over expressing Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 1487, 135-144, 2000.
Kuperstein F, Reiss N, Koudinova NV, and Yavin E. Biphasic modulation of protein kinase C and enhanced cell death by amyloid beta peptide and anoxia in neuronal cultures. J. Neurochem. In press.
Brand A, Gil S, Seger R, and Yavin E. Lipid Constituents in Oligodendroglia Cells alter susceptibility to H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death via ERK activation. J. Neurochem. In press.
Yavin E, Glozman S, and Green P. Docosahexaenoic acid accumulation in the prenatal brain: prooxidant and antioxidant features. J. Mol. Neurosci. In press.
Rabinkov A, Miron T, Mirelman D, Wilchek M, Glozman S, Yavin E and Weiner L. S-allylmercaptoglutathione: the reaction product of allicin with glutathione possesses antioxidant and SH-modifying properties. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. In press.
Submitted
Green P, Glozman S, and Yavin E. Ethyl docosahexaenoate-associated decrease in fetal brain lipid peroxide production is mediated by activation of prostanoid and nitric oxide pathways.
Book chapters
Yavin E. Monosialogangliosides and nerve growth factor stimulate synthesis of glycoproteins in glioma cells, in Molecular signalling and regulation in glial cells: A key to remyelination and functional repair (G Jeserich, HH Althaus, C Richter-Landsberg and R Heumann, eds) Springer Verlag, Heidelberg pp 76-90, 1996.
Green P and Yavin E. Mechanisms of docosahexaenoic acid accretion in the fetal brain. J. Neurosci. Res. 52, 129-136, 1998.