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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Wounds Common in Senior Citizens May Get Better
Treatment
NIH to fund wound healing centers seeking better,
faster healing
September 6, 2006 Diabetic ulcers and bedsores,
two common problems for senior citizens, as well as, other wounds like
burns and gunshot wounds, may all get improved treatment resulting from a new initiative of the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences (NIGMS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The institute announced today that it will award $13 million over four
years to create four centers to develop innovative therapies for acute
and chronic wounds.
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Central to the effort is bringing together experts
from many fields: microbiologists, engineers, cell biologists,
dermatologists, and other physicians. The goal is to deepen
understanding of wound healing and apply this knowledge to enhance
treatment.
The new centers create interdisciplinary groups of
basic scientists and clinicians to work together on their most
innovative ideas, said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. Focusing
the diverse expertise and approaches of these teams will integrate
current knowledge about how wounds heal and generate new strategies to
enhance and speed the healing process."
The new Centers for Innovative Wound Healing
Research include a total of 36 investigators at 8 universities and
medical centers. The wound healing centers and their lead principal
investigators are:
● Andrew Baird, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at
the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine in San Diego,
Calif. Baird's group will combine mathematics and biology to
simultaneously evaluate millions of molecules for their capacity to
speed up the normal healing process.
These methods, originally developed by cancer
researchers to target tumors, allow investigators to mine huge libraries
of molecules for those with new and improved biological activities.
Baird and his colleagues will use promising molecules to enhance the
activity of growth factors that accelerate healing, deliver gene-based
medicines to promote tissue repair, and study how stem cells in bone
marrow contribute to tissue regeneration.
● Luisa A. DiPietro, D.D.S., Ph.D., an
immunologist and cell biologist at the University of Illinois in
Chicago. DiPietros group will study wound healing in mucosal tissues,
which protect body cavities and canals that come into contact with the
air. These tissues, such as those found in the mouth and genital and
digestive tracts, heal more quickly and with less scarring than skin.
Understanding how mucosal tissues heal so well could
suggest ways to minimize scars from skin wounds. The team will start by
identifying the proteins and genes key to mucosal healing by comparing
mucosal and skin repair in humans, mice, and rabbits. Then, the
scientists will test whether manipulating any of these molecules can
affect scar formation and healing. Ultimately, the goal of the research
center is to develop drugs that reduce scarring in humans, especially
adults, who tend to heal more slowly than children.
● Gregg L. Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a geneticist at
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.
Semenzas group will study how certain types of cells, called
endothelial progenitor cells, can speed healing and reduce scarring in
burn wounds. The cells, dubbed EPCs, are produced in bone marrow and are
essential to rebuilding blood vessels, which are needed to repair
injured tissues.
The research team will test ways to promote this
natural healing by turning on a specific set of genes that recruit EPCs
to the wound site.
● Philip S. Stewart, Ph.D., a chemical and
biological engineer at Montana State University in Bozeman. The
Stewart group will examine how thin layers of bacteria, called microbial
biofilms, impede the healing of chronic wounds. Microbial biofilms are
complex, structured communities in which bacteria and other
microorganisms interact with each other. When such films collect on dead
or damaged tissue, they can resist antibiotics and immune system
defenses.
The research team will study the incidence and
microbial make-up of biofilms in chronic wounds, develop laboratory
models of biofilm infection, and test treatments designed to disrupt the
biofilms. In addition to yielding treatments for chronic wounds, this
research may help in treating other conditions in which biofilms are
thought to play a role, such as ear infections, and inflammation of the
sinuses, bones, and lining of the heart.
Editor's Notes:
Original report by
Susan Gaidos
For more information about NIGMS funding of
research on trauma, burn, perioperative injury, and wound healing
Click Here.
NIGMS
(http://www.nigms.nih.gov), a component of the National Institutes
of Health, supports basic biomedical research that is the foundation for
advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The Nation's Medical Research Agency
includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational
medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures
for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
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