Pankaj Gupta, M.D.

VA Medical Center

Dr. Gupta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. He is also a   Staff Physician in the Hematology-Oncology Section and the Co-Director      of the Research Flow Cytometry Core Facility at the Minneapolis Veterans   Affairs Medical Center.

Dr. Gupta received his M.B.B.S. (medical graduation) in 1984, M.D. in Internal Medicine (equivalent to Board Certification in Internal Medicine) in 1988, and Oncology subspecialty training from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.  He received training in bone marrow transplantation at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, U.K., and subspecialty training in Hematology,Oncology and Transplantation at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Gupta's clinical interest is in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes and gastro-intestinal malignancies. His research interests include (i) the biology of human hematopoietic stem cells, particularly the role of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the long term ex vivo maintenance and expansion of hematopoietic stem cells, (ii) the mechanisms by which abnormal proteoglycans cause the clinical abnormalities seen in the mucopolysaccharidoses (including Hurler syndrome), and the potential application of multipotent adult cells (MASC) for correction of these abnormalities, and (iii) the pathophysiological mechanisms causing the preleukemic myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), including apoptosis, marrow stromal function and stem cell-stromal interactions.

Selected Publications

Gupta P, Bijlani L, Rath GK et al. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil or with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil in 69 cases of locally advanced (stage IIIb) breast cancer. Japanese J Surg 1991; 21(6): 637-42.

Gupta P, Tiley C, Powles R et al. No increase in relapse in patients with myeloid leukaemias receiving rhGM-CSF after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplantation 1992; 9: 491-93.

Kochupillai V, Gupta P, Misra A. A phase II trial of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and cisplatin (CAP) in advanced breast cancer. Am J Clin Oncol 1992; 15(5): 388-91.

Tiley C, Powles R, Treleaven J, Catovsky D, Milan S, Teo CP, Catalano J, Mehta J, Shields M, Gupta P et al. Feasibility and efficacy of maintenance chemotherapy following autologous bone marrow transplantation for first remission acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Bone Marrow Transplantation 1993; 12:449-55.

Burroughs J, Gupta P, Verfaillie CM. Diffusible factors from the murine cell line M2-10B4 support human in vitro hematopoiesis. Exp Hematol 1994; 22: 1095-1101.

Gupta P, McCarthy JB, Verfaillie CM. Stromal fibroblast heparan sulfate is required for cytokine-mediated ex vivo maintenance of human long-term culture-initiating cells. Blood 1996; 87: 3229-36.

Gupta P. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. N Engl J Med  1997; 337: 1320. (letter to the editor).

Gupta P, Oegema TR, Brazil JJ, Dudek AZ, Slungaard A, Verfaillie CM. Structurally specific heparan sulfate support primitive human hematopoiesis by formation of a multimolecular stem cell niche. Blood 1998; 92: 4641-51.

Gupta P, Blazar BR, Gupta K, Verfaillie CM. Human CD34+ bone marrow cells regulate stromal production of interleukin-6 and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and increase the colony-stimulating activity of stroma. Blood 1998; 91: 3724-33.

Frizelle SP, Grim J, Zhou J, Gupta P, Curiel DT, Geradts J, Kratzke RA. Re-expression of p16INK4a in mesothelioma cells results in cell cycle arrest, cell death, tumor suppression and tumor regression. Oncogene 1998; 16: 3087-95.

Gupta P, LeRoy SC, Luikart SD, Bateman A, Morrison VA. Long-term blood product transfusion support for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS): cost analysis and complications. Leukemia Res 1999; 23: 953-59.

Gupta P, Niehans GA, LeRoy SC, Gupta K, Morrison VA, Schultz C, Knapp DJ, Kratzke RA. Fas ligand expression in the bone marrow in myelodysplastic syndromes correlates with FAB subtype and anemia, and predicts survival. Leukemia 1999; 13: 44-53.

Gupta K, Gupta P, Solovey A, Hebbel RP. Mechanism of interaction of thrombospondin with human endothelium and inhibition of sickle erythrocyte adhesion to human endothelial cells by heparin. Biochim Biophys Acta 1999; 1453: 63-73.

Gupta K, Kshirsagar S, Li W, Gui L, Ramakrishnan S, Gupta P, Law PY, Hebbel RP. VEGF prevents apoptosis of human microvascular endothelial cells via opposing effects on MAPK/ERK and SAPK/JNK signaling. Exp Cell Res 1999; 247: 495-504.

Punzel M, Gupta P, Roodell M, Mortari F, Verfaillie CM. Factor(s) secreted by AFT024 fetal liver cells following stimulation with human cytokines are important for human LTC-IC growth. Leukemia 1999; 13: 1079-84.

Gupta P, Oegema TR, Brazil JJ, Dudek AZ, Slungaard A, Verfaillie CM. Human LTC-IC can be maintained for at least 5 weeks in vitro when interleukin-3 and a single chemokine are combined with O-sulfated heparan sulfates: requirement for optimal binding interactions of heparan sulfate with early-acting cytokines and matrix proteins. Blood 2000; 95: 147-55.

Ramakrishnan S, Hebbel RP. Binding and displacement of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by thrombospondin: effect on human microvascular endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Angiogenesis 2000; 3: 147-58.

Brazil JJ, Gupta P. Constitutive expression of the Fas receptor and its ligand in adult human bone marrow: a regulatory feedback loop for the homeostatic control of hematopoiesis. Blood Cells Mol Dis  2002; 29 (1): 94-103.

Punzel M, Gupta P, Verfaillie CM. The microenvironment of AFT024 cells maintains primitive human hematopoiesis by counteracting contact mediated inhibition of proliferation. Cell Adhes Commun 2002; 9 (3): (in press)

Luikart SD, Masri M, Wahl D, Hinkel T, Beck JM, Gyetko MR, Gupta P, Oegema TR. Urokinase is required for the formation of mactinin, an a-actinin fragment that promotes monocyte/macrophage maturation. Biochim Biophys Acta  2002; 1591: 99-107.

Stringer SE, Nelson MS, Gupta P.  Identification of a MIP-1a binding heparan sulfate oligosaccharide of defined length that supports long-term in vitro maintenance of human LTC-IC. Blood 2003; 101:2243-2245.

Gupta K, Ramakrishnan S, Kshirsagar S, Gupta P, Hebbel RP. Thrombospondin prevents the anti-apoptotic effect of VEGF and inhibits VEGF-induced human microvascular endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenesis. (submitted).

Luikart SD, Krug HE, Nelson RD, Hinkel T, Gupta P, Oegema TR. Mactinin: a modulator of the monocyte response to inflammation. (submitted).