PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Restoring appropriate movement to immune cells may save seriously burned patients

Treatment with recently identified molecule helps neutrophils travel to site of injury, may reduce sepsis, other complications

2013-06-20
(Press-News.org) Advances in emergency medicine and trauma surgery have had a significant impact on survival of patients in the days immediately after major injuries, including burns. Patients who survive the immediate aftermath of their injuries now are at greatest risk from infections – particularly the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction known as sepsis – or from inflammation-induced multiorgan failure. Now, a device developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators that measures the movement of key immune cells may help determine which patients are at greatest risk for complications, and a novel treatment that directly addresses the cause of such complications could prevent many associated deaths.

"One in every three patients with burn injuries that dies in an intensive care unit does so because of septic complications," says Daniel Irimia, MD, PhD, of the MGH Department of Surgery, corresponding author of a report in the June FASEB Journal. "In the days immediately after injury, white blood cells called neutrophils can lose their ability to move to the site of an injury. In an animal model of burn injury, we found that death due to septic complications can be prevented by a treatment that restores the proper movement of neutrophils."

The most abundant type of white blood cell, neutrophils are part of the innate immune system and the body's first line of defense against infections. Normally, neutrophils are drawn towards the site of a infection by chemical signals from bacteria or injured cells. However, it has recently been discovered that – in patients with serious burn injuries – neutrophils' ability to follow these signals becomes impaired soon after the injury. Not only does that impairment reduce the availability of the cells to fight infection at the site of injury, but misguided neutrophils also can attack healthy tissue, contributing to organ failure. The current study was designed to analyze changes in the speed and direction of neutrophil movement after burn injury and to investigate whether recently identified molecules called resolvins, which normally act to terminate the inflammatory process after an infection has cleared, could also restore normal neutrophil motion after burns.

Using a microfluidic device that measures neutrophil movement developed at the MGH BioMEMS Resource Center, the investigators first confirmed that the ability of neutrophils from burn-injured rats to move towards a chemical signal of injury progressively deteriorates – in both speed and accuracy – as time passes. While cells from uninjured animals moved quickly and directly through a series of microchannels towards the injury signal, cells from blood samples taken 9 days after the injury became trapped in the device or reversed direction. The researchers then showed that application of resolvin D2 significantly improved the in vitro migratory ability of neutrophils from burned animals.

Experiments in living rats revealed that treatment with resolvin D2 restored appropriate neutrophil motion, an effect that lasted at least two days after treatment ended. In addition, when burn-injured animals were subjected to a second sepsis-inducing injury, treatment with resolvin D2 significantly increased survival. For example, in a group of rats injected with a bacterial toxin nine days after a burn injury, all of those pre-treated with resolvin survived, while all untreated animals died.

"Our ability to measure neutrophil movement in great detail gave us the information we needed to develop the optimal dosage and duration of resolvin treatment for the burned rats. Our results also indicate that neutrophil motility could be a useful biomarker for the actual risk of septic complications in patients," says Irimia, an assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School who is also affiliated with Shriner's Hospital for Children. "Our experiments in the animal model suggest that a resolvin-based treatment could prevent those complications by restoring the body's own resources, allowing it to respond to secondary infections, which could save hundreds of patients with burns every year. "

INFORMATION:

Lead author of the paper is Tomohiro Kurihara, MD, previously of the MGH Department of Surgery and now at Keio University in Tokyo . Additional co-authors are Caroline Jones, PhD, Yong-Ming Yu, MD, PhD, Susumu Watada, MD, Ronald Tompkins, MD, ScD, and Shawn Fagan, MD, MGH Surgery; and Alan Fischman, MD, MGH Radiology. The study was supported by grants from Shriners Burns Hospital and by National Institutes of Health grants GM-092804, GM-007035, and DE-019938.

Massachusetts General Hospital (http://www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Brain can plan actions toward things the eye doesn't see

2013-06-20
People can plan strategic movements to several different targets at the same time, even when they see far fewer targets than are actually present, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. A team of researchers at the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario took advantage of a pictorial illusion — known as the "connectedness illusion" — that causes people to underestimate the number of targets they see. When people act on these targets, however, they can rapidly plan accurate ...

New microfluidic chip can help identify unwanted particles in water and food

2013-06-20
A new process for making a three-dimensional microstructure that can be used in the analysis of cells could prove useful in counterterrorism measures and in water and food safety concerns. The research, conducted by members of Virginia Tech's Microelectromechanical Systems Laboratory (MEMS) Laboratory in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the focus of a recent article in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers' Journal of Microelectomechanical Systems. In their engineering laboratory, the researchers developed a new microfabrication ...

Biological fitness trumps other traits in mating game

2013-06-20
When a new species emerges following adaptive changes to its local environment, the process of choosing a mate can help protect the new species' genetic identity and increase the likelihood of its survival. But of the many observable traits in a potential mate, which particular traits does a female tend to prefer? A new study from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis finds that a female's mating decisions are largely based on traits that reflect fitness or those that help males perform well under the local ecological conditions. Males' bright ...

Researchers explain how neural stem cells create new and varied neurons

2013-06-20
EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 19, 2013) – A new study examining the brains of fruit flies reveals a novel stem cell mechanism that may help explain how neurons form in humans. A paper on the study by researchers at the University of Oregon appeared in the online version of the journal Nature in advance of the June 27 publication date. "The question we confronted was 'How does a single kind of stem cell, like a neural stem cell, make all different kinds of neurons?'" said Chris Doe, a biology professor and co-author on the paper "Combinatorial temporal patterning in progenitors ...

Less is more: Novel cellulose structure requires fewer enzymes to process biomass to fuel

2013-06-20
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 19, 2013—Improved methods for breaking down cellulose nanofibers are central to cost-effective biofuel production and the subject of new research from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC). Scientists are investigating the unique properties of crystalline cellulose nanofibers to develop novel chemical pretreatments and designer enzymes for biofuel production from cellulosic—or non-food—plant derived biomass. "Cellulose is laid out in plant cell walls as crystalline nanofibers, like steel reinforcements ...

A battery made of wood?

2013-06-20
A sliver of wood coated with tin could make a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery. But don't try it at home yet– the components in the battery tested by scientists at the University of Maryland are a thousand times thinner than a piece of paper. Using sodium instead of lithium, as many rechargeable batteries do, makes the battery environmentally benign. Sodium doesn't store energy as efficiently as lithium, so you won't see this battery in your cell phone -- instead, its low cost and common materials would make it ideal to store huge amounts ...

Group-based child care is linked to reduced emotional problems in children of depressed mothers

2013-06-20
This news release is available in French. Child care is linked to fewer emotional problems and symptoms of social withdrawal among children exposed to maternal depression, according to a new study of nearly 2000 children conducted by researchers in Montreal, Canada, at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and University of Montreal. "We found that children exposed to maternal depression during the preschool years were nearly two times more likely to develop emotional problems and separation anxiety symptoms. ...

Ibrutinib continues strong showing against mantle cell lymphoma

2013-06-20
HOUSTON - In a major international study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the targeted therapy ibrutinib continues to show remarkable promise for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). The most recent interim findings of the 18-center Phase 2 study were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Previous interim findings were presented in December 2012 at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition. Unprecedented results, fewer side effects "This oral inhibitor ...

Unexpected behavior of well-known catalysts

2013-06-20
Industrial palladium-copper catalysts change their structures before they get to work, already during the activation process. As a result, the reaction is catalysed by a catalyst that is different from the one originally prepared for it. This surprising discovery was made by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Removing of nitrates from ground water or chlorine from dry cleaning wastes are important environmental protection operations that require the use of appropriate catalysts. Popular catalysts include well-known ...

Long-term study reports deep brain stimulation effective for most common hereditary dystonia

2013-06-20
LOS ANGELES (June 19, 2013) – In what is believed to be the largest follow-up record of patients with the most common form of hereditary dystonia – a movement disorder that can cause crippling muscle contractions – experts in deep brain stimulation report good success rates and lasting benefits. Michele Tagliati, MD, neurologist, director of the Movement Disorders Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Department of Neurology, and Ron L. Alterman, MD, chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, published the study in the ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Post-LLM era: New horizons for AI with knowledge, collaboration, and co-evolution

“Sloshing” from celestial collisions solves mystery of how galactic clusters stay hot

Children poisoned by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has risen in the U.S. – eight years of national data shows

USC researchers observe mice may have a form of first aid

VUMC to develop AI technology for therapeutic antibody discovery

Unlocking the hidden proteome: The role of coding circular RNA in cancer

Advancing lung cancer treatment: Understanding the differences between LUAD and LUSC

Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US

The role of ubiquitination in cancer stem cell regulation

New insights into LSD1: a key regulator in disease pathogenesis

Vanderbilt lung transplant establishes new record

Revolutionizing cancer treatment: targeting EZH2 for a new era of precision medicine

Metasurface technology offers a compact way to generate multiphoton entanglement

Effort seeks to increase cancer-gene testing in primary care

Acoustofluidics-based method facilitates intracellular nanoparticle delivery

Sulfur bacteria team up to break down organic substances in the seabed

Stretching spider silk makes it stronger

Earth's orbital rhythms link timing of giant eruptions and climate change

Ammonia build-up kills liver cells but can be prevented using existing drug

New technical guidelines pave the way for widespread adoption of methane-reducing feed additives in dairy and livestock

Eradivir announces Phase 2 human challenge study of EV25 in healthy adults infected with influenza

New study finds that tooth size in Otaria byronia reflects historical shifts in population abundance

nTIDE March 2025 Jobs Report: Employment rate for people with disabilities holds steady at new plateau, despite February dip

Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure

Fluoride in drinking water is associated with impaired childhood cognition

New composite structure boosts polypropylene’s low-temperature toughness

While most Americans strongly support civics education in schools, partisan divide on DEI policies and free speech on college campuses remains

Revolutionizing surface science: Visualization of local dielectric properties of surfaces

LearningEMS: A new framework for electric vehicle energy management

Nearly half of popular tropical plant group related to birds-of-paradise and bananas are threatened with extinction

[Press-News.org] Restoring appropriate movement to immune cells may save seriously burned patients
Treatment with recently identified molecule helps neutrophils travel to site of injury, may reduce sepsis, other complications