Research Terms
Biotechnology Medical Sciences
Industries
Wound Healing Society, President; 1999 - 2001
Extramural Research Funding , National Institutes of Health; 1990 - 2013
Molecular Basis for Pressure Ulcers; Annual Meeting of Japanese Society for Pressure Ulcers; Japanese Society for Pressure Ulcers; 2008
Dr. Schultz explains how wound healing is a complex biological process that is regulated by the interaction of growth factors, cytokines, proteases and extracellular matrix components. Prolonged elevated expression of growth factors can lead to excessive scar formation such as hypertrophic skin scars or liver fibrosis. In contrast, chronic inflammation caused by planktonic and biofilm bacteria leads to elevated proteases that cause wound to fail to heal and become chronic. New molecular approaches based on advanced technologies such as targeted gene knockdown can reduce scarring. Chronic wounds can be stimulated to heal by treatments that reduce bacterial bioburden with "smart dressings" combined with recombinant growth factors.
Subject Areas:
Keywords:
Audience:
Adults
Duration:
1 hour or less
Fee:
Greater than $500
| Year: | 2017 |
| Link Address: | https://webcme.net/webinar/bioburden-biofilms |
| Keywords: | biofilm, inflammation, chronic wounds, |
| Source: | upload |
| Duration: | 40mm |
This laparoscopic surgical instrument reduces the risk of tissue spillage and infection during the removal of solid or cystic pelvic masses from the abdomen, allowing surgeons to perform safe tissue removal through a minimally invasive incision. Laparoscopy has continued to revolutionize abdominal surgery for over 30 years, and surgeons perform 15 million laparoscopic surgical operations worldwide each year. Compared to open surgery, laparoscopic surgery is less painful, causes minimal scarring, and reduces recovery time. In one common application of laparoscopic surgery, surgeons remove potentially malignant pelvic masses from the abdomen using an endocatch surgical bag. If the bag ruptures during tissue removal, the tumorous contents may spill into the abdomen and cause serious harm to the patient through infection or the spread of cancer cells. Available laparoscopic systems do not adequately protect against tissue spillage during minimally invasive tissue removal.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a laparoscopic tissue removal system that increases the safety of minimally invasive surgical procedures. The surgical instrument successfully removes pelvic masses, eliminates the need for a large incision, and reduces the risk of potentially malignant tissue spilling into the patient.
Laparoscopic tool to remove pelvic masses through a minimally invasive incision, while protecting against harmful tissue spillage
This laparoscopic tissue removal system includes an adaptive sleeve, a containment reservoir, and a tissue manipulation device. The containment reservoir encloses the piece of tissue removed by the manipulation device during the procedure, and the tissue undergoes morcellation within the reservoir if necessary. The containment reservoir is attached to the adaptive sleeve, preventing spillage of the tissue. The system may also incorporate an indicator within the layers of the containment reservoir that allows the surgeon to visually assess its condition and provide an additional layer of protection for the patient undergoing the tissue removal surgery.
Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) belongs to the CCN (CTGF/Cyr61/Cef10/NOVH) protein family, which is comprised of six secreted proteins that reside in the extracellular matrix (ECM). CTGF (Connective Tissue Growth factor) is a cysteine-rich, matrix-associated, heparin-binding protein. In vitro, CTGF mirrors some of the effects of TGF-beta on skin fibroblasts, such as stimulation of extracellular matrix production, chemotaxis, proliferation and integrin expression. CTGF can promote endothelial cell growth, migration, adhesion and survival and is implicated in endothelial cell function and angiogenesis.
This electromotive apparatus allows physicians to deliver macromolecules into tissue of a patient without life-threating side-effects. Macromolecular drugs hold great promise as therapeutic agents for a variety of diseases and disorders. However, contemporary methods for macromolecular drug delivery have been limited due to both the size of macromolecules and the lack of a safe and efficient transdermal delivery method. Iontophoresis is a non-invasive method of delivering ionic therapeutic agents through the skin, using a low-level electric current. This process dates back to the early 1900s, but until now, scientists have not understood it enough for safe and efficacious macromolecular drug delivery.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a method and device which can generate a large enough electric field to deliver optimal doses of macromolecules into any tissue, cell, membrane, or anatomical structure. Target tissues include, but are not limited to: corneas, skin, hair, finger or toe nails, and internal tissues. As transdermal messengers, these therapeutic macromolecules provide a primary advantage to the patient as it travels without destroying the tissue itself.
Electromotive delivery of molecular biological agents into intact internal and external tissues
Carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids are the four macromolecules used in the body’s cells for both structural and functional support. The full therapeutic potential of macromolecular drugs for treatment of congenital defects and viral infections depends on a safe and reliable delivery system to transport these macromolecules to their targeted locations. Iontophoresis shows a great deal of promise for the delivery of such drugs to damaged and diseased tissue transdermally, in an effective and non-invasive way. In Iontophoresis, electromotive force applied by electrodes to a delivery solution drives highly charged macromolecule drugs from an external solution into tissue through the skin. The danger of serious damage to tissues as a result of byproducts of the process, however, has prevented any practical application of iontophroresis. Caustic byproducts of electrolysis represent the main threat to tissue, and can cause catastrophic destruction to the body. This apparatus uses a buffering agent to separate the electrodes which deliver electromotive force from the body and drug. This buffering agent neutralizes the caustic byproducts of electrolysis, without negatively affecting the delivery of the macromolecular drug. In this way, iontophoresis delivers therapeutic treatment safely and effectively.
Read more in a related study by this inventor
These point-of-care diagnostic tools employ high-sensitivity fluorescence to perform rapid and accurate assessment of protease presence and activity in a wound, thereby facilitating administration of optimal wound therapy. Protease imbalances are often responsible for the development of a range of medical pathologies, such as cancer cell metastasis or the spread of infectious diseases. High protease levels also can suppress pro-healing factors and destroy nascent tissue in chronic wounds, the treatment of which accounts for the largest share of the global wound care market, projected to exceed $22 billion by 2022. Available protease activity assays are generally for laboratory settings rather than point-of-care wound assessment by non-technical personnel, and many point-of-care diagnostic tools lack the analytical sensitivity needed to minimize testing time for more rapid and effective treatment of chronic wounds.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed rapid, point-of-care protease detection assays that enable physicians to provide better treatment for chronic wounds. The devices are easy to use, completing their testing all within the same unit. They also exhibit very high analytical sensitivity that shortens overall testing time for more efficient chronic wound therapy.
Simple point-of-care diagnostic device to rapidly quantify protease levels or activity in wound tissue samples
These diagnostic tools utilize fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and colorimetric assay formats operating on a high-sensitivity substrate-cleaving mechanism to detect or quantify the activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), a protease that indicates the chronic status of a wound when present in elevated amounts. A peptide substrate contains both a fluorescing dye molecule and a second molecule that quenches the fluorescence of the fluorescing dye. The substrate is specifically cleavable only by the MMPs. Therefore, if elevated protease levels exist in the sample, then quenching of the fluorescing dye ceases, and its fluorescence indicates the protease activity in the wound. This mechanism empowers multiple assay devices, including straw and swab-based testing tools as well as thin film substrates able to portray visually the spatial distribution of protease activity across the surface of a wound bed.
