Aging, Author Interviews, Dermatology / 02.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ryan R. Driskell Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of Molecular Biosciences Center for Reproductive Biology Washington State University Pullman, WA. 99164  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Scars a serious health concern when they cover large areas of the body. Understanding how to functionally regenerate skin can improve the quality of life for individuals with large scars. Importantly, our study is proof of concept, in that we identified a genetic factor that allows adult skin to repair itself like the skin of a newborn babe. The discovery has implications for better skin wound treatment as well as preventing some of the aging process in skin. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology / 11.08.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hong Liang Tey MBBS, FRCP Head of Research Division and Senior Consultant, National Skin Centre, Singapore Adj Assoc Prof., Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine, National University of Singapore Asst Prof., Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? We developed dissolving microneedles embedded with a medication, triamcinolone, as a novel treatment option for patients with keloids and evaluated its efficacy and safety in a clinical trial.  Background: Keloids are a common skin disorder and itch and pain afflicts up to 80% of patients. The first-line and typically the only treatment option is multiple repeated intra-lesional corticosteroid injections by dermatologists or specially-trained nurses. However, many patients are unable to undergo this treatment. Typically, such patients
  • Are unable to tolerate the pain of conventional intra-lesional injection, as keloids are inherently hypersensitive. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that repeated monthly injections are required to achieve a response. In addition, children cannot tolerate pain and cannot undergo such injections.
  • Have keloids on the mid facial region, where injection carries a risk of causing blindness.
  • Are unable to afford the time and cost of repeated travelling to see a dermatology doctor or nurse for the injections. These include patients residing or working overseas.
  • Have mid-sternum protrusive scars after cardiac arterial bypass surgery, and painful injections may trigger another heart attack.
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Author Interviews, Dermatology, Technology / 11.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander Golberg, PhD Senior Lecturer Head of Environmental Bioengineering Laboratory Porter School of Environmental Studies Tel Aviv University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Wound care costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $20 billion each year, and care required to combat skin scarring represents an additional $12 billion burden. Hypertrophic scarring after trauma and burn injury remains a major clinical challenge that leads to physical, aesthetic, functional, psychological, and social stresses in thousands of patients. This is a stubborn clinical problem very difficult to solve. Inspired by previous works that pulsed electric fields kill cells precisely in tissue (procedure called irreversible electroporaiton, developed by UC Berkeley group of Boris Rubinsky and Rafael Davalo) and these ablated tissues regenerate with minimal scarring, we decided to test whether pulsed electric fields can reduce the scar formation if we treat the wound during healing. We found that partial irreversible electroporation using 200 pulses of 250 V and 70 µs duration, delivered at 3 Hz every 20 days during a total of five therapy sessions after the initial burn injury resulted in a 57.9% reduction of the scar area in comparison with untreated scars and structural features approaching those of normal skin. Noteworthy, unlike humans, rats do not develop hypertrophic scars. Therefore, the use of a rat animal model is the limiting factor of this work. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology / 25.06.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Chenjie Xu PhD Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore 637457 MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Keloid is a long-term dermatological scarring disease characterized by disfiguring lesions resulting from overgrowth of dense fibrous tissue. It is also unsightly and can even lead to disfigurement and psychological problems of affected patients. This study investigated the use of microneedle technology in the self-management of keloid lesions. Briefly, we have developed a “wearable” microneedle device for transdermal delivery of an anti-metabolite drug (5-FU) to inhibit the proliferation activity of keloid fibroblast. This study has provided evidence for effective inhibition of keloid fibroblasts in vitro and successful translation of this platform can significantly reduce the cost of keloid treatment and improve the patient compliance. (more…)