Identification of pain inducing tissue components in lipedema patients

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Lipedema is a severe disease of unknown etiology affecting estimated 7% of all women. It is accompanied by ill-treatable pain aggravating its strong psychosocial burden. Aim of this project is to determine1) the sensory modalities affected in patients,2) the inflammatory mediators and growth factors altered in patients’ tissue,3) which novel patient tissue factors modify cultured nociceptors, 4) how cultured nociceptive neurons are functionally modified by the identified altered candidate patient tissue factors,5) if those changes are preserved in human nociceptors derived from induced pluripotent stem cells,6) how these changes can pharmacologically mitigated. We aim to identify pathophysiological mechanisms using Quantitative Sensory Testing of patients, BioPlex200 Tissue analysis of patient tissue, High Content Screening microscopy of nociceptor cultures, functional analysis by HCS-microscopy based “signaling fingerprinting”, transcriptome analysis, and pharmacological interference on rodent nociceptors as well as on human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) derived nociceptors, and animal behavioral experiments. Understanding cellular mechanisms underlying lipedema pain creates the basis for the long path toward improvement of pain therapeutic reduction of patients suffering.