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.
Apoptosis in Cultured Calvarial Cells Following Radiation
Artur Gevorgyan MD
2004
Hospital for Sick Children
Basic Research Grant
Tissue Engineering
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of cell cycle arrest and inhibition of apoptosis as the mechanisms of cytoprotection in radiation-induced craniofacial bone growth inhibition through in vitro methodology. Specifically, cultured osteoblasts obtained from newborn rabbit calvaria will undergo a single dose orthovoltage radiation and will be used to study the expression of important bone markers, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis with and without cytoprotection. We hypothesize that: (1) inhibition of craniofacial bone growth following radiation occurs at the level of osteoblasts in a dose-dependent way; (2) the level of apoptosis in osteoblasts is significantly elevated following radiation; and (3) cytoprotection is exerted through cell cycle arrest and inhibition of apoptosis. Our objectives are to: (1) test the dose-dependent effect of radiation on osteoblast proliferation and function using cultured rabbit calvarial cells; (2) investigate the mechanisms of radiation injury to osteoblasts based upon (a) basic osteoblast parameters (proliferation, alkaline phosphotase activity, collagen type I and mineralization); (b) apoptosis and (c) cell cycle analysis; and (3) investigate the effectiveness of cytoprotection in this model using Amifostine (WR -2721) and its active metabolite (WR-I065) as probes. This study is clinically relevant since craniofacial bone growth inhibition is a consequence of radiotherapy in over 90 % of survivors of pediatric head and neck cancers, leading to severe functional and cosmetic deformities. Reconstruction of these conditions is challenging at best or impossible to achieve with conventional surgical techniques in the worst circumstances. Cytoprotection seems to be a viable strategy in the prevention of radiation-induced craniofacial bone growth inhibition in children.