Grants We Funded
Grant applicants for the 2024 cycle requested a total of nearly $3 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated more than 100 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $650,000 dollars to support more than 20 plastic surgery research proposals.
ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.
Research Abstracts
Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.
Comparative Evaluation of Agents on Fibrosis and Scar Fibroblasts
Yvonne Pierpont MD
2009
University of South Florida
Pilot Research Grant
Wounds / Scar
In this study we will concomitantly compare the inhibition/reduction of TGFâ and fibroblast contraction by 5-Fluorouracil, Methotrexate, Paclitaxel, Tamoxifen, Imiquimod, Mitomycin-C, and Bleomycin using fibroblast-populated collagen lattices (FPCLs) and TGFâ immunoassays. The presumptive mechanism of reduced fibroblast contraction is inhibition of transforming growth factor beta (specifically TGFâ1 and/or TGFâ2) produced by scar fibroblasts from scar-forming and skin fibrosing disease processes. Decreasing or inhibiting the effects of these TGFâ at the scar site will decrease contraction of fibroblasts and thus collagen, leading to a decreased overall scar formation. The extent to which these agents decrease/inhibit TGFâ and fibroblast/collagen contraction is not well defined. This experiment will utilize FPCLs to investigate fibroblast contraction inhibition by each of the listed antiproliferative/antimetabolite agents, and will employ the supernatants from these lattices to determine levels of TGFâ1 and TGFâ2 present following exposure. It will be determined which agents lead to the greatest decrease in TGFâ1 and TGFâ2 and fibroblast contraction of abnormal scars (keloid, hypertrophic scar) and skin fibrosing conditions (Dupuytren's contracture, rhinophyma). Data may be utilized to determine the likelihood of successful treatment of scarring/cutaneous fibrosing diseases with the test substances, or as a prelude to clinical trial. Improved function, range of motion, and cosmesis are some of the positive clinical effects of less scarring. Data from these investigations also has the potential to help reduce the number of surgical wound failures with subsequent re-operation, in the end, reducing healthcare cost. Determining which agent is superior at down-regulating TGFâ and decreasing fibroblast contraction will direct future research. TGF-ß
Yvonne N. Pierpont, MD graduated from University of Maryland School of Medicine and is a part of the University of South Florida Division of Plastic Surgery. She undertook one year of research focusing on wound healing in acute, chronic and burn wounds at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center. She has a longitudinal commitment to basic science research in the area of wound healing and scar development.