Moreshwar S. Desai MD

Dr. Desai is interested in the molecular mechanisms of cardiac dysfunction in cirrhotic liver diseases. Along with his mentor, Dr. Saul Karpen, he has shown a new form of cardiomyopathy in infants and children with end-stage cirrhotic liver disease secondary to biliary atresia and has shown that abnormal cardiac function in these infants affects post-transplant hospital and ICU length of stay. They have also reproduced key features of cardiomyopathy seen in clinical practice in novel mouse models of cholestasis and liver injury in an attempt to understand the pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms of cardiac dysfunction, termed- Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy. Dr. Desai has successfully finished a project looking at the role of TLR4 and TLR2 in steatohepatitis with an atherogenic diet.