29 August DRC Director's Report - April 2024 August 29, 2024 By The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center 0 Drawing on modern culinary techniques, the laboratory of Dr. James Byrne, University of Iowa assistant professor of radiation oncology and biomedical engineering, has developed a carbon-monoxide-infused foam that can be applied topically to wounds and improves healing in models of diabetic wounds. The results of the study were published March 12 in a journal called Device. Diabetes which affects almost 39 million Americans causes numerous health complications. One major consequence of diabetes is impaired wound healing, which results from chronic inflammation, a key feature of diabetes, and high blood sugar levels, which can fuel bacterial infections. Skin wounds and ulcers that do not heal well can be particularly problematic for people with diabetes, sometimes leading to serious infections, amputation, or even death. “Certain gases, like carbon monoxide, are known to have therapeutic properties if they are delivered in the right concentration at the right place. Our novel gas-entrapping materials, which can be formulated as foams or gels or even solids, allow us to deliver gases in a safe, prolonged fashion directly to the site where the therapy is needed,” Byrne explains. Ultimately, Byrne and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hope to start a new company around the technology. In addition to wound-healing, the researchers are also exploring the use of gas-entrapping materials (GEMs) in various cancer therapies. Recent studies have shown that topical gas therapies may have potential for improving wound healing. Carbon monoxide, for example, is generally thought of as a toxic gas, but localized in the right concentration, it can also deliver unique immune modulating effects that may be beneficial. In the new study, Byrne and his colleagues first showed that exposure to carbon monoxide enhances migration of human skin cells in a petri dish, a characteristic that could help the wound-healing process. They then developed a novel foam made from hyaluronic acid—a substance used in many skincare products—infused with carbon monoxide. The foam can be applied safely to wounds and allows for prolonged delivery of the gas directly at the wound site for therapy. The GEM also contained silver nanoparticles, which have antimicrobial properties and have been shown to promote wound healing. Using mouse models of diabetic wounds, the researchers showed that the carbon monoxide-foam promoted healing responses in deep skin wounds and pressure ulcers when compared to a foam infused with nitrogen, which does not have the same immune boosting properties as carbon monoxide, or untreated wounds. “Topical application of the carbon monoxide-foam maximized the local delivery of carbon monoxide while maintaining safe levels of systemic carbon monoxide, and the two types of diabetic wounds healed better and faster than untreated wounds or wounds treated with inert nitrogen-foam,” Byrne says. “We still need to test this approach in models that more closely resemble human diabetic wounds, but eventually we hope to develop these gas-entrapping materials into human therapies.” Related Articles DRC Director's Report - April 2021 FOEDRC member Matthew Potthoff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, and graduate student Sharon Jensen-Cody recently wrote a review article entitled: “Hepatokines and metabolism: Deciphering communication from the liver” that was published in the Journal Molecular Metabolism. This article was featured on the cover of the February issue of the Journal, that increased the visibility of their work. DRC Director's Report - April 2022 A research team that includes several FOEDRC faculty recently published an article describing a new approach to help treat type 2 diabetes. The research team included FOEDRC faculty members Robert Kerns PhD, Andrew Norris MD PhD, Eric Taylor PhD, Yumi Imai MD, and Jessica Smith MD. Also recognized in the publication was Wojciech Grzesik, PhD, who is a research scientist in the FOEDRC metabolic phenotyping core. The work was published in the prestigious journal "Nature Communications" and can be found at this link : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35145074/ DRC Director's Report - April 2019 In a recent study done by Wei Bao, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and member of the FOEDRC, his research team found that frequent consumption of fried foods, especially fried chicken and fried fish/shellfish, was associated with a higher risk of death from all causes and cardiovascular disease in women in the United States. Women with at least one serving per week of fried chicken had a 13% higher risk of death from all causes, and a 12% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease, when compared with women with no consumption of fried chicken. DRC Director's Report - March 2024 Diabetes, the leading global journal for basic diabetes research, sought the expertise of Dr. Renata Pereira, a faculty member of the FOEDRC, to review and analyze recent development in specific, but important area of diabetes research. This state-of-the-art review recently authored by Dr. Pereira titled "Mitochondrial Dynamics, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease" was published in the January edition of the journal. DRC Director's Report - September 2024 FOEDRC faculty, Dr. Samuel Stephens, Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Internal Medicine, has been awarded 2 major grants. The first is a three-year, $1.3M R01 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for his project, “Defining the contribution of mitochondrial redox metabolism to support proinsulin folding in the endoplasmic reticulum.” DRC Director's Report - July 2024 Liver health is a critical concern, especially for individuals with diabetes. While it has long been recognized that type 2 diabetes and obesity can damage the liver (a condition known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis or MASH), the association between type 1 diabetes and MASH has been less clear. Recent evidence has shed light on this connection. It appears that even people with type 1 diabetes can develop MASH, particularly if they are also obese. Understanding how this occurs and identifying strategies to prevent liver damage in type 1 diabetes patients is crucial. Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.