Ron Dalman

Ronald L Dalman, MD, Walter Clifford Chidester and Elsa Rooney Chidester Professor, Chief, Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine

Research Description: Dr. Dalman’s group has focused on the fundamental pathogenesis, pharmacological intervention and risk factors of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease over two decades. Although diabetes worsens most cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, it is the sole clinical condition that lowers the risk for, and also limits the progression of existing small, AAAs. The mechanisms through which diabetes alters AAA formation and progression have not been defined. In the mouse model of type 1 diabetes, our group has demonstrated the diabetes-mediated attenuation of abdominal aortic aneurysms and its phenotype restoration by normalizing hyperglycemia via insulin administration. Very recently, they found that the anti-hyperglycemic drug metformin suppressed experimental AAA progression and that clinical aneurysms progressed more slowly in diabetic aneurysm patients than in the patients not taking metformin. Currently, Dr. Dalman is exploring the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the dysfunctions of angiogenesis, innate and adaptive immunity in diabetic conditions contribute to aneurysm inhibition. His group has collaborations with several investigators in the Stanford Diabetes Research Center. 

Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC Members in BOLD):

  1. Lal Xu B, Li G, Guo J, Ikezoe T, Kasirajan K, Zhao S, Dalman RL. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, coronavirus disease 2019, and abdominal aortic aneurysms. J Vasc Surg. 2021 Feb 15:S0741-5214(21)00195-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2021.01.051. PMID: 33600934; PMCID: PMC7944865. 

  2. Flores AM, Mell MW, Dalman RL, Chandra V. Benefit of multidisciplinary wound care center on the volume and outcomes of a vascular surgery practice. J Vasc Surg. 2019 Nov;70(5):1612-1619. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2019.01.087. May 29. PMID: 31153696. 

  3. Itoga NK, Rothenberg KA, Suarez P, Ho TV, Mell MW, Xu B, Curtin CM, Dalman RL. Metformin prescription status and abdominal aortic aneurysm disease progression in the U.S. veteran population. J Vasc Surg. 2019 Mar;69(3):710-716.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2018.06.194. PMID: 30197158; PMCID: PMC6706071. 

  4. Xu B, Iida Y, Glover KJ, Ge Y, Wang Y, Xuan H, Hu X, Tanaka H, Wang W, Fujimura N, Miyata M, Shoji T, Guo J, Zheng X, Gerritsen M, Kuo C, Michie SA, Dalman RL. Inhibition of VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor)-A or its Receptor Activity Suppresses Experimental Aneurysm Progression in the Aortic Elastase Infusion Model. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2019 Aug;39(8):1652-1666. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.119.312497. PMID: 31294623; PMCID: PMC6699755. 

  5. Li J, Pan C, Zhang S, Spin JM, Deng A, Leung LLK, Dalman RL, Tsao PS, Snyder M. Decoding the Genomics of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. Cell. 2018 Sep 6;174(6):1361-1372.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.07.021. PMID: 30193110.