Dartmouth Medical School - Faculty Database

Title(s):
Research Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

Department(s):
Microbiology and Immunology

Education:
U. California - Santa Barbara, PHD 1979
U. California - Santa Barbara, BS 1973

Dr. White received her B.A. after attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and finishing at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973. Her Ph.D. in Chemistry was obtained from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1979.

Postdoctoral work included a position as a Howard Hughes Research Associate at the University of Washington under Nobel laureate Edwin G. Krebs in the field of protein kinase enzymology. A second position as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provided training in molecular biology technology in murine beta globin genetics with Drs. Clyde Hutchison and Marshall Edgell in the Department of Microbiology. Dr. White joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Dartmouth Medical School in 1987.

Programs:
Immunology Program
Norris Cotton Cancer Center

NIH Biosketch:
White_H_BIO_2009-01-30.pdf

Websites:
http://www.cancer.dartmouth.edu/gyn/ovarianresearch.shtml
http://dms.dartmouth.edu/microbio/
http://dms.dartmouth.edu/immuno/
http://myprofile.cos.com/white987
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2003/april/040703a.html
http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/tip_sheets/winter2001.php
http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=2na04opbfapn76cexzfgznbgesa0ijhf

Dr. White is presently studying immune cells from human female reproductive tract tissues, derived from hysterectomy patients and infertility patients, as well as cancer patients. In particular, Dr. White's laboratory has discovered that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) lytic function is absent from the uterine endometrium at the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle, when implantation of an embryo can occur. CTL activity, which mediates cellular immunity, is highest in uterine endometrial tissue after menopause, and is high in lower reproductive tract tissues throughout the menstrual cycle. Dr. White has hypothesized that ovarian steroid hormones downregulate CTL in the normal premenopausal uterine endometrium to allow for implantation and reproduction to occur, while CTL are active in the lower reproductive tract as part of a protective immunologic barrier. Additional implications of CTL activity that is regulated by ovarian steroid hormones and by location within the reproductive tract, with respect to fertility and to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, are discussed in Dr. White's publications.

An additional project involves the study of T cell dysfunction in freshly isolated human tumor samples from the human female reproductive tract (e.g. ovarian cancer). T cells are considered by many to be the prime mediators of an effective anti-tumor response. Tumor infiltrating T lymphocytes (TIL) have been shown by Dr. White and by others to be non-lytic and unable to kill tumor cells. Current studies in Dr. White's laboratory are focused on determining the mechanisms by which TIL are rendered ineffective against tumor cells. Dr. White has taken her findings in human ovarian cancer to a mouse model system to define more clearly the mechanisms by which tumor-associated immune cells are held in a dysfunctional state.

http://www.cancer.dartmouth.edu/gyn/ovarianresearch.shtml

Clinical Trial: Treatment of Fibromyalgia with Low Dose Testosterone

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2003/april/040703a.html

Additional selected publications:

Givan, A.L., H.D. White, J.E. Stern, E. Colby, P. Guyre and C.R. Wira “Flow Cytometric Analysis of Leukocytes in the Human Female Reproductive Tract: Comparison of Fallopian Tube, Uterus, Cervix, and Vagina”, Amer. J. Reproduc. Immunol. 38:350-359, 1997

White, H.D., K.M. Crassi and C.R. Wira “Cytolytic Functional Activities of NK Cells and Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTL) Are Coordinately Regulated in the Human Female Reproductive Tract”, in Mucosal Solutions: Advances in Mucosal Immunology, Vol. 1:385-391, pub The Univ of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1997

Yeaman, G.R., H.D. White, A. Howell, and C.R. Wira “The Mucosal Immune System In The Human Female Reproductive Tract: Potential Insights in to the Heterosexual Transmission of HIV”, Aids Research & Human Retroviruses 14:S57-S62, 1998

White, H.D., R.H. Prabhala, S.L. Humphrey, K.M. Crassi, J.M. Richardson and C.R. Wira “A Method for the Dispersal and Characterization of Leukocytes from the Human Female Reproductive Tract” American Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 44:96-103, 2000

White, H.D., L.K. Musey, M.M. Andrews, G.R. Yeaman, L.R. DeMars, P.D. Manganiello, A.L. Howell, C.R. Wira, W.R. Green, M.J. Mc Elrath "Human Immunodeficiency Virus-specific and CD3-Redirected Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Activity in the Human Female Reproductive Tract: Lack of Correlation between Mucosa and Peripheral Blood", J. Infectious Diseases 183:977-83, 2001

Wira, C.R., J.V. Fahey, H.D. White, G.R. Yeaman, A.L. Givan and A.L. Howell “The Mucosal Immune System in the Human Female Reproductive Tract: Influence of Stage of the Menstrual Cycle and Menopause on Mucosal Immunity in the Uterus” in The Endometrium, edited by S.R. Glasser, J. Aplin, L. Giudice and S. Tabibzadeh, Harwood Academic Publishers, UK, pp359-391, 2002

Rudner, L.A., J.T. Lin, I-K. Park, J.M.M. Cates, D. Dyer, D.M. Franz, M.A. French, H.D. White and J.D. Gorham “Necroinflammatory Liver Disease in BALB/c-Background TGF-beta1 Deficient Mice Requires CD4 T Cells”, J. Immunology 170:4785-4792, 2003

White, H.D., K.M. Crassi, G.R. Yeaman, C.R. Wira and W.R. Green, “Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes in the Human Uterine Endometrium: Anergy Reversal of CTL by Stimulation with Anti-CD3 Antibody”, submitted