The Plastic Surgery Foundation
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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.

Targeting Tension in Facial Aesthetic Surgery Scars

Principal Investigator
Madeleine Gust MD

Year
2011

Institution
Northwestern University

Funding Mechanism


Focus Area


Abstract
The repair of injured cutaneous tissue is a fundamental biological sequence essential to the continuity of life. However, the potential for dysregulation and overexuberance leading to hypertrophic scar is a serious clinical problem with a lack of good therapeutic options. Hypertrophic scarring can result in severe disfigurement, life-threatening restriction of motion, and disabling pain. Research in the field of facial scarring has been limited to the effect of incision location, and to the efficacy of delayed treatment on already formed hypertrophic scars. However, tension during early scar formation is an important contributor to hypertrophic scarring, and the tension in the face is compounded by the action of the muscles of facial expression. Only recently have targeted interventions been applied, including the use of botulinum toxin to decrease the tension created by facial musculature adjacent to incision sites. In spite of advances in our understanding of the acute mechanisms of wound repair, the role of tension on the molecular signals that culminate in pathologic scar formation remain mostly unknown. The exciting new field of “mechanotransduction” tries to elucidate the process by which cells sense mechanical forces and convert these forces to biochemical signals. This process has been difficult to study because of the absence of hypertrophic scarring in most animals, and the lack of applicability of in vitro systems. We propose a novel animal model for testing the effect of cyclic tension on cutaneous scarring. We aim to show that we can produce not only stretching of the scar, but also an increase in scar height through the use of a novel cyclic tension application device. We believe that our research will lead to an improved mechanistic understanding of the role of cyclic tension in surgical scars. Further, we believe that this understanding will provide a foundation for new interventions, both operative and medical, to decrease facial scarring.