Debora Kamin Mukaz

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Assistant Professor at University of Vermont

Introduction Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurement in epidemiology studies could be increased if reliability of measurements in frozen stored samples was known. In the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke, a longitudinal study of 30,239 Black and White U.S. adults, we investigated reliability of HbA1c measurements for two types of s...

Leptin is an adipokine associated with obesity and with hypertension in animal models. Whether leptin is associated with hypertension independent of obesity is unclear. Relative to White adults, Black adults have higher circulating leptin concentration. As such, leptin may mediate some of the excess burden of incident hypertension among Black adult...

Context Soluble CD14 (sCD14) is an inflammation biomarker with higher concentrations in White than Black adults. Higher sCD14 is seen in insulin resistance and diabetes. There are limited data on the relationship between sCD14 and incident diabetes. Objective To determine the association of sCD14 with incident diabetes risk in a large biracial US...

Background Nearly half of all Americans have hypertension, and Black adults experience a disproportionate burden. Hypercoagulability may relate to hypertension risk, and higher levels of factor VIII increase thrombosis risk. Black adults have higher factor VIII and more hypertension than other groups. Whether higher factor VIII associates with inci...

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) and atherothrombosis have different mechanisms of thrombosis formation. A few previous studies reported those having a VTE have greater risk of incident atherothrombotic disease. These studies have several limitations, such as inadequate adjustment for key confounders (e.g., obesity), selected study populati...

Background: Thrombo-inflammation is involved in hypertension pathogenesis. Black people have higher thrombo-inflammatory biomarkers and hypertension burden than White people. It is unclear whether residential segregation, a driver of health inequities, has a differential impact on thrombo-inflammation in Black and White Americans. Hypothesis: Highe...

Rationale: Perceived discrimination adversely impacts individual and population health. However, limited studies have examined associations between discrimination and COVID-19 severity in a diverse cohort of adults. We investigated the association between lifetime discrimination and risk of severe COVID-19. Methods: This study included Black, Chine...

Background: It is unknown how cardiovascular health (CVH) relates to severe Covid-19 illness in adults without clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD). We hypothesized that more optimal Life’s Essential 8 (LE8)-quantified CVH is associated with lower risk of severe Covid-19 among US adults without clinical CVD. Methods: C4R is ascertaining Covid-19 e...

BACKGROUND Hypertension is a highly prevalent cardiovascular disease risk factor that may be related to inflammation. Whether adverse levels of specific inflammatory cytokines relate to hypertension is unknown. The present study sought to determine whether higher levels of IL (interleukin)-1β, IL-6, TNF (tumor necrosis factor)-α, IFN (interferon)-γ...

OBJECTIVE Black Americans have a greater risk of type 2 diabetes than White Americans. The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is implicated in diabetes pathogenesis, and IL-6 levels are higher in Black individuals. This study investigated associations of IL-6 with incident diabetes and metabolic syndrome in a biracial cohort. RESEARCH D...

Leptin is an adipokine associated with obesity and with hypertension in animal models. Whether leptin is associated with hypertension independent of obesity is unclear. Relative to White adults, Black adults have higher circulating leptin concentration. As such, leptin may mediate some of the excess burden of incident hypertension among Black adult...

Introduction Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurement in epidemiology studies could be increased if reliability of measurements in frozen stored samples was known. In the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke, a longitudinal study of 30,239 Black and White U.S. adults, we investigated reliability of HbA1c measurements for two types of s...

Background: Inflammation is implicated in hypertension’s etiology. IL-17A is a cytokine representing specific immune pathways. Its association with incident hypertension in adults is unknown. Objective: Determine risk of incident hypertension among adults by level of IL-17A. Methods: In 2003-2007, REGARDS enrolled 30,239 US Black and White adults a...

Higher rates of cardiovascular events have been observed among rural residents compared with urban. Hypertension and lack of blood pressure (BP) control are risk factors for cardiovascular events. We compared the prevalence of hypertension and controlled BP, and the distribution of systolic blood pressure (SBP), by urban-rural residence. Participan...

Introduction: We examined the associations of baseline telomere length (TL) and TL change with cognitive function over time in older US adults, as well as differences by sex and race. Methods: A total of 1820 cognitively healthy individuals (median baseline age: 63 years) were included. Telomere length was measured using qPCR-based method at bas...

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is more common in Black than White adults in the US. The inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is implicated in DM pathogenesis and circulates at higher levels in Black people. Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a group of conditions related to insulin resistance, often precedes or coexists with DM. Little evi...

Introduction: Black adults experience the highest hypertension burden of any American group. Evidence indicates social factors adversely affecting Black people explain some of the excess hypertension burden. It’s unclear whether residential segregation, a key cause of health inequities, has a differential impact on Black and White people. Hypothesi...

Introduction: A prothrombotic state is implicated in the vascular complications of type 2 diabetes (DM), and such complications disproportionately affect Black compared to White adults. However, it is not known if this is due to DM or whether coagulation factor levels are related to DM incidence. Higher coagulation factor IX (FIX) was related to in...

Background: Black adults have a disproportionate hypertension burden. While some excess risk is mediated by diet and sociodemographics factors (e.g., income, education) much remains unexplained. Pro-thrombotic and pro-inflammatory states are associated with hypertension risk; higher coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) is associated with thrombosis, inf...

Background: Each year in the U.S, 60,000-100,000 people die of venous thromboembolism (VTE), but little is known about mortality and causes of death over the long-term after VTE. Hypotheses: VTE, especially cancer-related VTE, is associated with poor long-term survival. Cancer and circulatory diseases are the main causes of death after VTE. Methods...

Background: Reasons for increased risk of hypertension in Black compared with White people are only partly understood. D-dimer, a thrombo-inflammatory marker higher in Black individuals, is also higher in people with hypertension. However, the impact of D-dimer on racial disparities in risk of incident hypertension has not been studied. Objective...

Background: Leptin is an anorexigenic and sympathoexcitatory adipokine strongly associated with obesity and associated with hypertension in animal models. Whether leptin is associated with hypertension incidence independent of obesity is unclear. Methods: REGARDS recruited 30,239 Black or White adults aged ≥45 years recruited from 48 US contiguous...

Background: Leptin is a hypertension-related adipokine. We previously found leptin to associate with greater risk of incident hypertension in non-obese adults. Relative to White adults, Black adults have higher circulating leptin concentration. As such, leptin may be a mediator of the excess burden of incident hypertension among Black adults. Metho...

Globally, Black people have some of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease. Racial inequities in cardiovascular health must be tackled. Black In Cardio is a trainee-led initiative aimed at promoting Black people in the cardiovascular field and raising awareness about issues related to the cardiovascular health of Black communities.

Telomere length (TL) is widely studied as a possible biomarker for stress-related cellular aging and decreased longevity. There have been conflicting findings about the relationship between family caregiving stress and TL. Several initial cross-sectional studies have found associations between longer duration of caregiving or perceived stressfulnes...

Circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers may be influenced by chronic psychological stressors such as those experienced by family caregivers. However, previous studies have found mostly small and inconsistent differences between caregivers and control samples on individual measures of systemic inflammation. Latent variables of inflammation wer...

The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults comprising 14 established United States (US) prospective cohort studies. Starting as early as 1971, C4R cohorts have collected data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and soci...

Background: Higher C-reactive protein (CRP) is a risk factor for incident hypertension, but this non-specific inflammatory biomarker does not provide insight into specific immune pathways of hypertension. Here, we studied the role of selected cytokines in risk of incident hypertension to better elucidate these pathways. Objective: To determine the...

Introduction: CD14 is a pattern recognition receptor that plays important roles in the inflammatory response. Circulating soluble CD14 (sCD14) is generated by hepatocyte secretion during the acute phase response and by cleavage from immune cell surfaces, and levels are higher in White than Black individuals. CD14 is implicated in adipose tissue-med...

Background Understanding health care experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic may provide insights into patient needs and inform policy. The objective of this study was to describe health care experiences by race and social determinants of health. Methods We conducted a telephone survey (July 6, 2020-September 4, 2021) among 9492 Black and White p...

Background Higher D-dimer is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and venous thromboembolism. In the general population, D-dimer and other thrombo-inflammatory biomarkers are higher among Black individuals, who also have higher risk of these conditions compared to White people. Objective To assess whether Black individuals have an exaggerated...

Purpose We previously described the magnitude of rural-urban differences in the prevalence of stroke risk factors and stroke mortality. In this report, we sought to extend the understanding of rural-urban differences in the prevalence of stroke risk factors by using an enhanced definition of rural-urban status and assessing the impact of neighborho...

Background: Diabetes is one the costliest diseases in the U.S, and excess inflammation associates with greater diabetes risk. Greater adiposity is associated with higher leukocyte count, but the interrelations of body size phenotype, leukocytes, and incident diabetes is unknown. Hypothesis: Body size phenotype and incident diabetes can be further u...

The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) is a national prospective study of adults at risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) comprising 14 established United States (US) prospective cohort studies. For decades, C4R cohorts have collected extensive data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, includi...

In the United States, causes of racial differences in stroke and its risk factors remain only partly understood, and there is a long-standing disparity in stroke incidence and mortality impacting Black Americans. Only half of the excess risk of stroke in the United States Black population is explained by traditional risk factors, suggesting potenti...

Objective: This study sought to assess the association between unidimensional acculturation and diabetes, and analyze mediating pathways of the association in African immigrants to the United States (U.S.). Hypothesis: Acculturation would be positively associated with diabetes and that BMI (Body mass index), physical activity, and psychological dis...

Background The underlying causes of hypertension remain ill-defined as are the reasons for the increased risk among black Americans. Research suggests D-dimer, a procoagulant marker higher in black Americans, is a risk marker for hypertension. However, these data are mostly cross-sectional, and the impact on racial disparities in hypertension incid...

The annual number of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa to the United States (US) has roughly doubled every decade between 1980 and 2010. By 2015 the current and growing population of African Immigrants was estimated at 1.7 million, accounting for 4% of the 43.3 million immigrants in the US. The objective of this study is to investigate factors tha...

Background: In the US, length of residence has been shown to increase diabetes risk in migrants. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of research on the topic for African migrants especially as it relates racial differences. However, the prevalence of diabetes is higher in North Africa compared to sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the goal of our study was to...

The paper seeks to counter arguments of Africa's neediness by highlighting two health-related efforts: Rwanda's cervical cancer eradication program and Elimination 8, an effort to eliminate malaria in Southern Africa. DISCLAIMER: The article is not for mass dissemination or mass widespread distribution.

In platelets, TMEM16F, an eight-transmembrane protein, is a calcium activated-cation channel highly permeable to calcium. The TMEM16F gene has been shown to be mutated in Scott's syndrome, a rare bleeding disorder characterized by a defect in the scrambling activity of platelets and microparticle generation. In this thesis, I investigated the effec...

Transmembrane (TMEM)16f is member of the TMEM16 family of ion channels, recently shown to be essential for optimal Ca2+-dependent phospholipid scrambling in platelets, platelet-dependent pro-coagulant activity and thrombosis. However, relatively little is known about the effect of TMEM16f on platelet signaling, functional activity, and microparticl...

Transmembrane (TMEM)16f is a protein from the family of TMEM16 Ca++-dependent Chloride channels that is essential for optimal Ca2+-dependent phospholipid scrambling activity in platelets. Recently, it has been shown that TMEM16f-dependent exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS) on platelet surfaces is required for platelet-dependent pro-coagulant activ...

Transmembrane (TMEM)16f is member of the TMEM16 family of ion channels, recently shown to be essential for optimal Ca2+-dependent phospholipid scrambling in platelets, platelet-dependent pro-coagulant activity and thrombosis. However, relatively little is known about the effect of TMEM16f on platelet signaling, functional activity, and microparticl...