Grants We Funded
Grant applicants for the 2023 cycle requested a total of nearly $4 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated nearly 140 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $1 million dollars to support nearly 30 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.
Human and Mouse Osteoblasts Exhibit Distinct Patterns of Osteogenesis in 3D
Clifford Pereira MD
2009
VA Medical Center West Los Angeles
Scientific Essay Contest
INTRO: Tissue engineered bone (TEB) holds great clinical promise. Understanding interspecies variation between animal models and humans is essential to translate
experimental results from bench to bedside. Using two-and three-dimensional culture models, we studied the species variation of osteogenic and angiogenic marker expression in human and murine osteoblasts and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
METHOD: Three human and three murine cell lines were used. Human cells included human mesenchymal stem cells, multi-lineage progenitor cells and normal human
osteoblasts. Murine cells included MC3T3, C3H10T1/2 and M2-10B4 cells. Cells were seeded directly on to Poly-Lactide-Glycolic-Acid (PLGA) coated tissue culture plates or
three-dimensional PLGA scaffolds, incubated in osteogenic media and harvested at 1, 4 and 7 days. mRNA expression was analyzed with quantitative real-time RT-PCR for
osteogenic and angiogenic markers including Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP), Osteocalcin (OCN), Bone Sialoprotein (BSP), Core Binding Factor Alpha-1 (CBFA-1), VEGF and
Interleukin-8 (IL-8). Data were analyzed using ANOVA.
RESULTS: All human cells had significantly increased expression of osteogenic markers in 3-D compared to 2-D (ALP by 220%, OCN by 323%, BSP by 534%, and
CBFA-1 by 357%). However, all murine cells exhibited significant decreases in the expression of osteogenic markers in 3-D compared to 2-D (ALP by 89%, OCN by 64%, BSP by 76%, and CBFA-1 by 73%). In contrast to this pattern of osteogenic markers, all human and murine cells showed markedly elevated expression of angiogenic factors IL-8 and VEGF in 3-D compared to 2-D cultures. IL-8 expression increased significantly by
845% in human cells and 168% murine cells. VEGF expression was increased by 906% and 332% respectively. Measurement of ALP activity confirmed this pattern of osteogenic differentiation.
CONCLUSION: While both human and mouse cells showed increased activity in angiogenesis when cultured in 3-D, they exhibited distinct pattern in osteogenesis.
Osteogenic differentiation is increased significantly in 3-D human MSCs while decreased in 3-D murine MSCs. Since 3-D cultures represent in vivo conditions more closely, this
species variation has important translational implications to TEB research.
Second Place Investigator Category - Dr. Clifford Pereira, is a PGY4 General Surgery Resident at Harbor-UCLA, Los Angeles, California. His area of research is Tissue Engineering and Regeneration. He has served on the Research Committee of the American Burn Association and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Biomaterials Applications.