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What
The General
Surgery Regenerative Medicine Lab at
MUSC has two main priorities: developing
regenerative skeletal muscle and
researching hypovolemic shock and
resuscitation.
Michael Yost,
Ph.D., associate professor and director
of research for trauma and critical care
in the Department of Surgery,
established the lab at MUSC in February
2012. By July 2013, when the lab's first
resident is on board and a new full-time
researcher is hired, the regenerative
medicine lab will consist of nine
employees.
 Drs.
Michael Yost, right, and J. Matthew
Rhett work in the General Surgery
Regenerative Medicine Lab.
The General
Surgery Division Chief, Samir M. Fakhry,
M.D., recruited Yost and his team to
build a basic science program in support
of the division's work in injury and
critical illness. "Creating new
knowledge and solutions to the many
problems we encounter in the acutely ill
and injured patient are fundamental
parts of our mission as an academic
group seeking to provide the best care
possible to our patients. This research
has great potential to be translated to
every day patient care and improve the
lives of our patients in the foreseeable
future."
Research
Yost explained the
lab's work by using a car-crash victim
as an example.
"During the
wreck, let's say the steering wheel hits
you in your belly. Often times, that
will rupture your spleen or liver, which
will give you a fairly significant
internal injury," Yost said. "You'll be
in hypovolemic shock, which means you've
lost a lot of blood from your vascular
system into your belly."
The medical staff
will then likely pump the patient with
fluids, open the abdomen and pack off
the bleeding organ. If the patient is
stabilized, he/she may develop
complications days later from the leak
of the resuscitation fluid out of the
vasculature into body tissues, according
to Yost.
"Because we've
put foreign fluids into you, your body
mounts an inflammatory response to it,
and it either makes you sick or it kills
you," he said.
If the patient is
not able to be stabilized, a surgeon
will likely perform a laparotomy, which
is when the abdomen is opened and the
ruptured organ is fixed. But, when the
patient is closed, significant scar
tissue may develop into a ventral hernia
a year or two later.
"About 20 percent
of damage-control laparotomies will go
on to develop a ventral hernia," Yost
said. "We are trying to develop
techniques and strategies to regenerate
muscle tissue rather than scar tissue."
Funding
The Regenerative
Medicine Lab is currently funded by the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the National Institute of Dental and
Craniofacial Research because of its
impact on craniofacial defect research.
In addition, important start-up funding
for the laboratory was provided by a
private donation to Fakhry.
"Dog bites, for
example, typically occur in the facial
region," Yost said. "It's difficult for
them [dog bite victims] to chew their
food, smile or look at themselves in a
mirror. We work on ways of regenerating
the skeletal muscle so they get their
smile back and their ability to chew
again."
The team is also
taking the lead on the statewide NSF R2
grant, according to Yost, and has 11
patents, mostly licensed by a company in
Germany.
"We publish in
some of the top journals in our field,"
he said. "All those things make MUSC a
leader on the national and international
stage in regenerative medicine."
Ultimate Goals
The lab at MUSC
works closely with collaborators at
Carilion Medical Center Roanoke, Va.,
New York University College of
Dentistry, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest,
and the University of South Carolina,
among others to reach its near-term
goals.
"The ultimate
goal is to regenerate skeletal muscle
for people who have lost muscle due to
trauma, defect or disease," Yost said.
"Our research also focuses on
resuscitative fluids and strategies that
address the needs of the cell during
periods of low blood flow."
Through
collaborations, the lab has already
developed a small peptide that modified
the inflammatory response when trying to
regenerate skeletal muscle. It was
patented and commercialized, but now the
focus is on developing a second one.
The researchers
eventually hope to understand the
regenerative technology enough to be
able to translate it to different
tissues.
"We'd love to
take it to the heart, but we're not
there yet. We're taking one step at a
time for now," Yost said.
Friday,
March 1, 2013
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