Ramona Scotland obtained a PhD in Pharmacology from University College London in 2000. After 2 years as a post-doctoral research fellow at Yale University she returned to London and later joined The William Harvey Research Institute in 2006 to undertake a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship into sex-differences in inflammation. She was appointed as Lecturer in 2010. Her current research focuses on differential mechanisms of leukocyte activation in males and females.

Research interests

Conditions that arise from excessive recruitment of leukocytes into tissues - including myocardial infarction, sepsis and post-surgery infections – are substantially less common and less severe in women compared to age-matched men. Dr. Scotland’s research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular events that govern this difference in regulation of leukocyte trafficking between males and females.

Recent findings

Scotland et al. have recently reported pioneering work demonstrating fundamental differences in macrophage phenotype in female mammals compared to age-matched males. The study demonstrates that the number of total leukocytes in resting tissues (including the peritoneal and pleural cavities) in females is double that in males. Moreover, each female macrophage also has a greater level of pathogen/injury-sensing Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and phagocytic capacity.  This altered composition of tissue leukocytes in females results in rapid clearance of live bacteria and other TLR-activating stimuli in females without the recruitment of substantial numbers of tissue-damaging neutrophils from the circulation. In addition, female tissues also benefit from the increased presence of immunomodulatory T-lymphocytes that keep macrophage-derived cytokine synthesis in check.  

The results of this study were widely covered by the media including an article in The Daily Express by David Derbyshire 19/09/11.

Selected publications

Scotland RS, Stables M. J, Madalli S, Watson P, Gilroy D. W (2011). Sex-differences in resident immune cell phenotype underlies more efficient acute inflammatory responses in female mice. Blood

Villar IC, Scotland R. S, Khambata R. S, Chan M, Duchene J, Sampaio A. L, Perretti M, Hobbs A. J, Ahluwalia A (2011). Suppression of endothelial P-selectin expression contributes to reduced cell trafficking in females: an effect independent of NO and prostacyclin. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol.;31(5):1075-83.

Laxton RC, Hu Y, Duchene J, Zhang F, Zhang Z, Leung K. Y, Xiao Q, Scotland R. S, Hodgkinson C. P, Smith K, Willeit J, López-Otín C, Simpson I. A, Kiechl S, Ahluwalia A, Xu Q, Ye S (2009). A role of matrix metalloproteinase-8 in atherosclerosis. Circ Res.;105(9):827-9.

Scotland RS, Cohen M, Foster P, Lovell M, Mathur A, Ahluwalia A, Hobbs A. J (2005). C-type natriuretic peptide inhibits leukocyte recruitment and platelet-leukocyte interactions via suppression of P-selectin expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102(40): 14452-14457.

Scotland RS, Madhani M, Chauhan S. D, Moncada S, Andresen J, Nilsson H, Hobbs A. J, Ahluwalia A (2005). Investigation of vascular responses in eNOS/COX-1 double-knockout mice: key role for EDHF in the regulation of blood pressure in vivo. Circulation 111(6):796-803.

Scotland RS, Chauhan S. D, Davis C, De Felipe C, Hunt S, Kabir J, Kotsonis P, Oh U, Ahluwalia A (2004). The vanilloid receptor TRPV1, sensory C-fibres and vascular autoregulation: a novel mechanism involved in myogenic constriction. Circ. Res.  95(10):1027-34.

Gratton J. P, Yu J, Griffith J. W, Babbitt R, Scotland R. S, Hickey R, Giordano F. J, Sessa W. C (2003). Cell-permeable peptides improve cellular uptake and therapeutic gene delivery of replication-deficient viruses in cells and in vivo. Nature Med. 9(3): 357-362.

Scotland RS, Morales-Ruiz M, Chen Y, Yu J, Rudic R. D, Fulton D, Gratton J. P, Sessa W. C (2002). Functional reconstitution of endothelial nitric oxide synthase reveals the importance of serine 1179 in endothelium-dependent vasomotion. Circ Res. 90(8):904-10.

PhD Students

Ms. Shimona Madalli
Ms. Emma Kay

Collaborators

Prof. C. Thiemermann
Prof. S. Ye
Prof. D.W. Gilroy  (UCL)
Dr. Gillian A. Gray (University of Edinburgh)