Grants 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.
Skeletal muscle regeneration by human satellite cells following denervation
Alvin Wong MD
2016
The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco
National Endowment for Plastic Surgery Grant
General Reconstructive, Peripheral Nerve
Muscle degenerative conditions affect millions in the United States, and diseases that target isolated small muscles and traumatic injuries to individual nerves or muscles disable over 1 million. Satellite cells, a population of resident stem cells in skeletal muscle, can proliferate and repair damaged muscle, making them promising targets for muscle regenerative therapies. Mouse satellite cells (MuSCs) have been transplanted and shown to correct histopathology and improve muscle function in disease models. Our laboratory recently isolated human skeletal muscle stem cells (hMuSCs) that regenerate skeletal muscle after transplant into a mouse, making them a potential source of regeneration-capable cells. Previous studies have reported that the number of satellite cells in denervate muscle decreases by approximately one-third after seven months; others have found that the inability of skeletal muscle to regenerate after prolonged denervation may be due to various factors, including physical barriers arising as a result of anatomic changes. However, it is not known whether muscle satellite cells in denervated muscle retain their stem cell characteristics. Determining whether the native muscle stem cell population in denervated muscle possesses regenerative potential, or whether supplementation of regeneration-capable cells from another source is necessary and feasible, will clarify what the most effective treatment strategies will be. The goal of this project is to determine a) whether intrinsic MuSC function and characteristics are maintained after denervation via flow cytometry and immunohistochemical techniques, b) the ability of hMuSCs to repopulate denervated muscle via transplantation and immunohistochemistry, and c) how hMuSCs affect histopathology and function of denervated muscle after reinnervation via immunohistochemistry and myo-mechanical analysis. This project will define whether muscle atrophy and dysfunction following denervation is, in fact, a disease affecting satellite cells, and whether their supplementation can improve muscle function in a model of peripheral nerve reinnervation following chronic denervation. If successful, a novel method of muscle regeneration will be available to those afflicted by chronic skeletal muscle denervation injury that may improve their functional outcomes after reinnervation, giving hope to patients with this unmet clinical need.
