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.
Peripheral Nerve Repair Using Conduits Supplemented With Adipose Stem Cells
Principal Investigator
M. Asher Schusterman II, MD
M. Asher Schusterman II, MD
Year
2016
2016
Institution
University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
Funding Mechanism
Pilot Research Grant
Pilot Research Grant
Focus Area
Peripheral Nerve, Tissue Engineering
Peripheral Nerve, Tissue Engineering
Abstract
Peripheral nerve damage is a common outcome in traumatic injuries and is associated with high long-term morbidity. Maximizing outcomes in patients experiencing peripheral nerve injury relies within optimizing the speed, quality, and quantity of nerve regeneration. When severed, injured nerves must be able to regenerate and reconnect to the structures they previously controlled within 12-18 months before sensation and motion are lost. The current gold standard of care for a severe transecting injury is transplantation of a nerve autograft. Unfortunately, this treatment does not typically result in full recovery and has the added problem of causing donor site morbidity. Previous studies have identified biodegradable conduits able to direct regeneration across a rat sciatic nerve model. Additionally, several groups, including ours, have found success in transplanting adult mesenchymal stem cells at the injury site to aid in regeneration. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are a readily available adult stem cell source and have the benefit of being relatively easily obtained from patients. Although our group and others have shown improved responses transplanting ASCs, an optimized method of cell delivery with clinical translatability has not been optimized. This study seeks to further examine nerve regeneration using nerve conduits supplemented with adipose-derived stem cells at the site of peripheral nerve repair as well as overall muscle function. We propose to investigate a reverse thermal hydrogel based on an already FDA-approved poloxamer material for this purpose. Early results have also shown activation of regenerative signaling pathways that suggest the poloxamer ASC delivery method will have a positive effect on nerve and muscle physiology during repair. We will use this gel to deliver hASCs in our rat model of peripheral nerve injury. With these experiments, we will perform functional testing to assess the efficacy of our treatment, as well as IHC studies of nerve explants to investigate the mechanism by which transplanted ASCs exert their beneficial effects on peripheral nerve regeneration. This study intends to examine nerve regeneration in a rat model for a long period of time in order to evaluate the potential for full muscle re-innervation with functional testing.
Peripheral nerve damage is a common outcome in traumatic injuries and is associated with high long-term morbidity. Maximizing outcomes in patients experiencing peripheral nerve injury relies within optimizing the speed, quality, and quantity of nerve regeneration. When severed, injured nerves must be able to regenerate and reconnect to the structures they previously controlled within 12-18 months before sensation and motion are lost. The current gold standard of care for a severe transecting injury is transplantation of a nerve autograft. Unfortunately, this treatment does not typically result in full recovery and has the added problem of causing donor site morbidity. Previous studies have identified biodegradable conduits able to direct regeneration across a rat sciatic nerve model. Additionally, several groups, including ours, have found success in transplanting adult mesenchymal stem cells at the injury site to aid in regeneration. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are a readily available adult stem cell source and have the benefit of being relatively easily obtained from patients. Although our group and others have shown improved responses transplanting ASCs, an optimized method of cell delivery with clinical translatability has not been optimized. This study seeks to further examine nerve regeneration using nerve conduits supplemented with adipose-derived stem cells at the site of peripheral nerve repair as well as overall muscle function. We propose to investigate a reverse thermal hydrogel based on an already FDA-approved poloxamer material for this purpose. Early results have also shown activation of regenerative signaling pathways that suggest the poloxamer ASC delivery method will have a positive effect on nerve and muscle physiology during repair. We will use this gel to deliver hASCs in our rat model of peripheral nerve injury. With these experiments, we will perform functional testing to assess the efficacy of our treatment, as well as IHC studies of nerve explants to investigate the mechanism by which transplanted ASCs exert their beneficial effects on peripheral nerve regeneration. This study intends to examine nerve regeneration in a rat model for a long period of time in order to evaluate the potential for full muscle re-innervation with functional testing.
Biography
I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2009. While an undergrad, I worked in the cardiovascular surgery research lab at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas during the summer. There, I participated in research projects examining continuous flow devices in a mock circulatory system, as well as participated in cardiothoracic operations on pigs and sheep. I completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas in 2013. During that time, I participated in multiple clinical research projects focusing on breast reduction and breast reconstruction under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Philips, Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery. I also worked for a brief period in the wound healing lab at UTMB, culturing fibroblasts and performed Western Blot analysis. In 2013 I accepted a position as an integrated resident in the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Since joining, I have participated in research projects in a wide variety of topics, including breast reconstruction, hand surgery, vascularized composite allotransplantation, and currently regenerative medicine. Starting July 2016, I will spend a year of dedicated research in the Adipose Stem Center laboratory run by co-directors Dr. J. Peter Rubin and Dr. Kacey Marra.
I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2009. While an undergrad, I worked in the cardiovascular surgery research lab at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas during the summer. There, I participated in research projects examining continuous flow devices in a mock circulatory system, as well as participated in cardiothoracic operations on pigs and sheep. I completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas in 2013. During that time, I participated in multiple clinical research projects focusing on breast reduction and breast reconstruction under the mentorship of Dr. Linda Philips, Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery. I also worked for a brief period in the wound healing lab at UTMB, culturing fibroblasts and performed Western Blot analysis. In 2013 I accepted a position as an integrated resident in the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Since joining, I have participated in research projects in a wide variety of topics, including breast reconstruction, hand surgery, vascularized composite allotransplantation, and currently regenerative medicine. Starting July 2016, I will spend a year of dedicated research in the Adipose Stem Center laboratory run by co-directors Dr. J. Peter Rubin and Dr. Kacey Marra.