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.
In Vivo Conditioning of Tissue Engineered Tendon Constructs Produced in Vitro
Ian Lytle MD
2006
University of Michigan
Basic Research Grant
Tissue Engineering
Tendons are made up of densely packed connective tissues that are organized to transmit the high forces between muscle and bone. They are a complex tissue composed of fibroblasts and parallel fibrils of collagen that interact with an extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM is composed of many proteins, glycosaminoglycans, and proteoglycans that control the assembly of the collagen fibrils and contribute to the formation of the tissue hierarchy inherent to its functional properties. Tissues such as tendon, cornea and cartilage are ideal candidates for three dimensional tissue engineering due to the relative avascular environments in which they exist. Due to the lack of requirement of a vascular supply, several researchers have begun to investigate tendon engineering in vitro. By inducing tendon fibroblasts to secrete and generate their own ECM, members of our lab have had success with the in vitro development of scaffold free tendon constructs. These constructs, although consisting of the prime ingredients present in native tendon, demonstrate significantly decreased tensile strength and collagen content when compared to their natural counterparts. We hypothesize that by 'conditioning' these constructs manufactured in vitro within an in vivo environment, that they will improve both their structural and mechanical properties, thus making them better candidates for use as three dimensional tissue replacement analogues.