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

Study offers promising new direction for organ regeneration and tissue repair

Researchers identify a novel approach to enhance tissue growth

2013-07-31
(Press-News.org) BOSTON – Because most human tissues do not regenerate spontaneously, advances in tissue repair and organ regeneration could benefit many patients with a wide variety of medical conditions.

Now a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center has identified an entirely new approach to enhance normal tissue growth, a finding that could have widespread therapeutic applications.

Their findings were published on-line this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Tissue regeneration is a process that is not fully understood, but previous research has demonstrated that endothelial cells lining the insides of small blood vessels play a key role in tissue growth. It is also known that these endothelial cells generate chemical messengers called epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which stimulate blood vessel formation in response to tissue injury.

In this new research, first author Dipak Panigrahy, MD, an investigator in BIDMC's Center for Vascular Biology Research, and his colleagues wanted to find out how EETs might participate in organ and tissue regeneration. To answer this question, they created seven different mouse models. The models focused on liver, kidney and lung regeneration; wound healing; corneal vascularization; and retinal vascularization.

"We used genetic and pharmacologic tools to manipulate EET levels in the animals to show that EETs play a critical role in accelerating tissue growth, providing the first in vivo demonstration that pharmacological modulation of EETs can affect organ regeneration," explains Panigrahy, an Instructor in Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Administering synthetic EETs spurred tissue growth in the research models; conversely, lowering EET levels – by either manipulating genes or administering drugs – delayed tissue regeneration.

The team also demonstrated that proteins called soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitors, known to elevate EET levels, promoted liver and lung regeneration. (sEH is the main metabolizing enzyme of EETs.)

"Our results offer a mechanistic rationale for evaluating sEH inhibitors as novel therapeutics for a number of human diseases such as hepatic insufficiency after liver damage and diseases characterized by immature lung development, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia," says Panigrahy, adding that the use of topical sEH inhibitors on the skin might also be useful for the acceleration of wound healing.

The researchers suspected that EETs were stimulating tissue regeneration by way of blood vessel formation, specifically by producing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to promote vessel growth. As predicted, when the investigators depleted VEGF in the mice, EETs' effects on organ regeneration disappeared.

"Discovering EETs' role could be of critical importance to help control the repair of liver, lungs and kidneys," says senior author Mark Kieran, MD, PhD, of the Division of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. "Since diseases of these organs are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the North American population, the opportunity to modulate the regeneration of healthy tissue could have significant therapeutic implications for many patients." These findings may also apply to conditions or physical defects that lead to the loss of specialized cells in other organ systems, such as the nervous system and the immune system.

The investigators stress that it will be important to determine whether EETs affect other factors, besides VEGF, in influencing tissue repair. Additionally, they add, the beneficial effects of EETs will have to be carefully weighed against their finding that direct administration of EETs can stimulate cancer growth in animal models. Several clinical trials that are currently testing the potential of sEH inhibitors for purposes other than organ regeneration or wound repair could offer valuable insights into the safety of elevating EET levels in patients.

"Although our work suggests synthetic EETs would promote wound healing after surgery, more clinical trials are needed to assess the potential benefits and possible risks of these novel lipids," adds co-corresponding author Darryl Zeldin, MD, Scientific Director for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to laying the groundwork for future research, the investigators point out that this study highlights the benefits of experts from varying disciplines and organizations working together, noting that coauthors work in departments ranging from oncology to ophthalmology and from pharmacotherapy to transplantation. They included investigators from Boston Children's Hospital; the Institute for Systems Biology; the University of California, Davis; the National Institute of Environmental Health Science at the National Institutes of Health; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the Lahey Clinic Medical Center; the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; and Schepens Eye Research Institute/Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

### In addition to Panigrahy, Kieran and Zeldin, coauthors include Bruce D. Hammock (co-corresponding author); Brian T. Kalish, Sui Huang, Diane R. Bielenberg, Hau D. Lee, Jun Yang, Matthew L. Edin, Craig R. Lee, Ofra Benny, Dayna K. Mudge, Catherine E. Butterfield, Akiko Mammoto, Tadanori Mammoto, Bora Inceoglu, Roger L. Jenkins, Mary A. Simpson, Tomoshige Akino, Fred B. Lih, Kenneth B. Tomer, Donald E. Ingber, John R. Falck, Vijaya L. Manthati, Arja Kaipainen, Patricia A. D'Amore, and Mark Puder.

This work was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute (RO1CA148633-01A4); the Stop and Shop Pediatric Brain Tumor Fund; the C. J. Buckley Pediatric Brain Tumor Fund; the Children's Hospital Boston Surgical Foundation and the Vascular Biology Program; the Robert A. Welch Foundation (GL625910); the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Z01 025034 and Z01 050167); the National Institutes of Health (R01 GM088199; GM31278; R01 ES002710; R01 ES013933, and CA045548; and the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program (NIH Grant P42 ES004699). The work was also supported through the Joshua Ryan Rappaport Fellowship and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and currently ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide.

BIDMC has a network of community partners that includes Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Anna Jaques Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Lawrence General Hospital, Signature Health Care, Commonwealth Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare, Community Care Alliance, and Atrius Health. BIDMC is also clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and Hebrew Senior Life and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit http://www.bidmc.org.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Chemical company giants stall with global economy

2013-07-31
The world's 50 largest chemical companies — with combined 2012 sales of almost $1 trillion and products that touch the lives of people everywhere — are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. In C&EN's annual snapshot of the sales, profits, R&D spending and other indicators, Senior Correspondent Alexander Tullo points out that the Asian and Middle Eastern juggernauts that shot up the top 50 rankings during the past decade ...

New poll shows minority populations support clinical trials to improve health of others

2013-07-31
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—July 31, 2013—Altruism is a strong motivating factor for clinical trial participation in the general population and even more so among several minority groups. A significant percentage of African-Americans (61%), Hispanics (57%) and Asians (50%) say it's very important to participate as a volunteer in a clinical trial to improve the health of others, compared to 47% of non-Hispanic whites, according to a new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America. These findings are tempered by the reality that participation remains disturbingly ...

3-D molecular syringes

2013-07-31
This news release is available in German. Abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea -- these symptoms could point to an infection with the bacterium Yersinia. The bacterium's pathogenic potential is based on a syringe-like injection apparatus called injectisome. For the first time, an international team of researchers including scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, has unraveled this molecular syringe's spatial conformation. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the length of Yersinia's injectisome's basal body, which ...

VCU physicists discover theoretical possibility of large, hollow magnetic cage molecules

2013-07-31
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have discovered, in theory, the possibility of creating large, hollow magnetic cage molecules that could one day be used in medicine as a drug delivery system to non-invasively treat tumors, and in other emerging technologies. Approximately 25 years ago, scientists first made the discovery of C60 fullerene – better known as the Buckminster Fullerene – a molecule composed of 60 carbon molecules that formed a hollow cage. Due to its unique hollow cage structure the molecule offers serious technological potential because it could ...

Tiny, brightly shining silicon crystals could be safe for deep-tissue imaging

2013-07-31
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tiny silicon crystals caused no health problems in monkeys three months after large doses were injected, marking a step forward in the quest to bring such materials into clinics as biomedical imaging agents, according to a new study. The findings, published online July 10 in the journal ACS Nano, suggest that the silicon nanocrystals, known as quantum dots, may be a safe tool for diagnostic imaging in humans. The nanocrystals absorb and emit light in the near-infrared part of the spectrum, a quality that makes them ideal for seeing deeper into tissue ...

Robots strike fear in the hearts of fish

2013-07-31
Brooklyn, N.Y.—The latest in a series of experiments testing the ability of robots to influence live animals shows that bio-inspired robots can not only elicit fear in zebrafish, but that this reaction can be modulated by alcohol. These findings may pave the way for new methodologies for understanding anxiety and other emotions, as well as substances that alter them. Maurizio Porfiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Simone Macrì, a collaborator at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità ...

First experimental signs of a New Physics beyond the Standard Model

2013-07-31
The Standard Model, which has given the most complete explanation up to now of the universe, has gaps, and is unable to explain phenomena like dark matter or gravitational interaction between particles. Physicists are therefore seeking a more fundamental theory that they call "New Physics", but up to now there has been no direct proof of its existence, only indirect observation of dark matter, as deduced, among other things, from the movement of the galaxies. A team of physicists formed by the professor of Physics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Joaquim Matias, ...

Key factors for wireless power transfer

2013-07-31
WASHINGTON D.C., July 31, 2013 -- What happens to a resonant wireless power transfer system in the presence of complex electromagnetic environments, such as metal plates? A team of researchers explored the influences at play in this type of situation, and they describe in the American Institute of Physics' journal AIP Advances how efficient wireless power transfer can indeed be achieved in the presence of metal plates. The team discovered that resonance frequency matching, alignment of the magnetic field, and impedance matching are the most important factors for efficient ...

Binding together repelling atoms

2013-07-31
Basic chemistry tells us that a bond between atoms can form if it is energetically more favorable for the atoms to stick together than staying apart. This fundamentally requires an attractive force between the atoms. However, new theoretical predictions show that the combination of a repelling force and controlled noise from an environment can also have the surprising effect of leading to a bound state, although one with quite exotic properties. The research team consisting of Harvard postdoc Mikhail Lemeshko and former Harvard postdoc Hendrik Weimer* report their results ...

The pathway to potato poisons

2013-07-31
In 1924, Science magazine reported on a fatal case of potato poisoning: James B. Matheney of Vandalia, Illinois, had gathered about one and a half bushels of tubers, which had turned green due to sunlight exposure. Two days after eating the potatoes, most of his family -- wife, two daughters and four sons -- showed symptoms of poisoning; the only exceptions were James himself, who didn't eat the potatoes, and a breast-fed baby boy. His wife, aged 45, died a week later, followed by their 16-year-old daughter. The other five members of the family recovered. Although such ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Whooping cough can be fatal in young infants, experts warn

Knee-d for excellence: New regional training hub keeps surgeons sharp for ageing population

The Lancet: Billions lack access to healthy diets as food systems drive climate and health crises, but sustainable, equitable solutions are within reach, says new EAT-Lancet report

Countries with highest reported levels of hearing loss have lowest use of hearing aids

Early medical abortion at home up to 12 weeks is safe, effective, and comparable to hospital care

New approach to gravitational wave detection opens the Milli-Hz Frontier

Rice membrane extracts lithium from brines with greater speed, less waste

Exercise lowers disease risk. This researcher wants to understand how

Hurricane evacuation patterns differ based on where the storm hits

Stem Cell Reports welcomes new members to its Editorial Board

Researchers develop molecular qubits that communicate at telecom frequencies

Mayo Clinic awarded up to $40 million by ARPA-H for pioneering air safety research

People with Down syndrome have early neuroinflammation

CNIO researchers create the “human repairome”, a catalogue of DNA “scars” that will help define personalized cancer treatments

Strengthening biosecurity screening for genes that encode proteins of concern

Global wildfire disasters are growing in frequency and cost

Wildfire management: Reactive response and recovery, or proactive mitigation and prevention

Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of a low-temperature brown dwarf

Scientists develop rapid and scalable platform for in planta directed evolution

New tiny prehistoric fish species unlocks origins of catfish and carp

Plant microbiota: War and peace under the surface

Fossilized ear bones rewrite the history of freshwater fish

Detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf atmosphere raises more questions

USF study: Ancient plankton hint at steadier future for ocean life

MIT researchers find a simple formula could guide the design of faster-charging, longer-lasting batteries

Towards efficient room-temperature fluorine recovery from fluoropolymers

Mapping RNA-protein 'chats' could uncover new treatments for cancer and brain disease

The hidden burden of solitude: How social withdrawal influences the adolescent brain

Kidney disease study reveals unexpected marker

AI wrote nearly a quarter of corporate press releases in 2024

[Press-News.org] Study offers promising new direction for organ regeneration and tissue repair
Researchers identify a novel approach to enhance tissue growth