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.
Skin Regenerative Potential of ADSCs: in vivo Nude Mouse Model
Brian Derby MD
2011
Southern Illinois University
As researchers identified the pluripotentiality of a cell line within adipose tissue known as preadipocytes, these cells came to be known as adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). Ease of ADSC harvest, compared to bone marrow aspiration, gave way to research studies looking to utilize ADSCs in a variety of tissue regenerative applications. Plastic surgeons have learned to refine the process of harvesting fat grafts, and to use these grafts for soft tissue augmentation of the face, breast, etc. While contour restoration remains the primary objective of fat grafting, anecdotal reports of skin rejuvenation and scar softening overlying grafted fat are frequently noted. Many of these reports suggest such effects result from the impact of ADSCs on overlying skin. Objective evidence of ADSC contribution to epithelial and dermal cell lineages, however, is lacking. Despite this, researchers have been able to identify ADSC's role in neovascularization, through both angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. While these secondary roles are notable, they do not specifically demonstrate how fat grafts improve skin composition. The purpose of this study is to histologically describe how ADSCs contribute to skin cell lineages, after being grafted into a subdermal plane. To our knowledge, no study has attempted to identify the differentiation of ADSCs towards skin cell lineages after subdermal implantation. Identification of donor fluorescent ADSC cells, as differentiated skin cells in recipient nude mice, aims to validate claims of ADSC's contributions to skin rejuvenation. Objective data, demonstrating cellular contribution of fat grafts to overlying skin, may validate the potential use of sub-dermal fat grafts for management of sclerotic skin conditions (i.e. scleroderma). Validation of future studies directed towards scleroderma "skin rejuvenation", through fat grafting, offers a novel treatment strategy that may significantly alter how these patients are managed.
Graduated, with a Bachelor of Science, from Stetson University in Deland, FL in 2003. Completed medical school education at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa, FL. Training
began in 2007 in the Integrated Plastic Surgery Program of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, IL. Member of Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society in Medicine. Research interests currently include the molecular biology of tendon healing and adhesion scar modulation, and lower extremity reconstruction outcomes.