Uncovering the secreted secrets of adipose tissues to engineer novel cell free therapies for scar regeneration.

脂肪移植将脂肪组织注射到皮肤下，整形外科医生已经证明，这种移植可以改善疤痕外观，提高皮肤质量。这项临床观察显示了脂肪组织的潜在作用，然而，目前我们对脂肪组织如何发挥这些积极作用的科学理解存在差距。该项目的目的是确定脂肪组织中的哪些分泌因子对观察到的临床效果负责：(I)了解生物学机制；(Ii)利用这些知识设计新颖的、受生物启发的治疗方法，以治疗受惊吓和受损的皮肤。该项目建立在赫恩登研究小组(www.sheffield.ac.uk/materials/people/academic-staff/vanessa-hearnden)的发现基础上，该发现表明，人类脂肪组织中的分泌因子可以减少疤痕细胞的形成，并可以减少皮肤收缩(严重皮肤损伤的一种改变生活的并发症)。来自这些实验室模型的数据表明，脂肪组织分泌一组功能蛋白质，这个由Craig Murdoch(www.sheffield.ac.uk/dentalschool/our-people/academic-staff/craig-murdoch)，教授共同指导的项目将进一步研究脂肪移植如何改变疤痕组织的作用机制。这个项目对改善患者护理至关重要，因为更好地了解其中涉及的机制将支持为患者开发更好的治疗方法，我们的目标是利用这些发现设计新的疤痕再生治疗策略，这些策略受到脂肪组织的启发，可以用于不可能进行脂肪移植的应用。该项目将在细胞培养、组织工程和临床翻译方面提供广泛的培训，以产生科学家和临床社区都感兴趣的生物学证据。这将与使用人体组织和先进分析技术的培训相结合。

Fat grafting, where adipose tissue is injected beneath the skin, has been shown by plastic surgeons to improve scar appearance and improve skin quality. This clinical observation demonstrates the potential adipose tissue has however there is currently a gap in our scientific understanding of how adipose tissue exerts these positive effects. The aim of this project is to determine which secreted factors from adipose tissue are responsible for the clinical effects observed to: (i) understand the biological mechanism and (ii) to use this knowledge to engineer novel, bioinspired treatment strategies for scared and damaged skin. This project builds on findings from the Hearnden research group (www.sheffield.ac.uk/materials/people/academic-staff/vanessa-hearnden) which have shown secreted factors from human adipose tissue can reduce scar cell formation and can reduce skin contraction (a life-altering complication of severe skin damage). Data from these lab models has demonstrated that adipose tissues secrete a panel of functional proteins and this project, co-supervised by Professor Craig Murdoch (www.sheffield.ac.uk/dentalschool/our-people/academic-staff/craig-murdoch), will further investigate the mechanism of action of how fat grafting alters scar tissues. This project is of critical importance to improve patient care, as a better understanding of the mechanisms involved will support the development of better treatments for patients and we aim to use these findings to engineer novel treatment strategies for scar regeneration which are inspired by adipose tissues and which can be used in applications where fat grafting is not possible. This project will deliver extensive training in cell culture, tissue engineering and clinical translation to generate biological evidence which is of interest to scientists and the clinical community alike. This will be combined with training in the use of human tissues and advanced analytical techniques.