Regenerative Medicine to Become a Reality for Wounded Soldiers

Do you know someone who is currently serving, or has served, in the war in Iraq or the conflict in Afghanistan? If so, hopefully they will be returning to you soon - unharmed. Unfortunately, some of our soldiers are not so lucky. Regardless of your take on the war, the fact remains that soldiers do get injured, sometimes quite severely. And those injured soldiers don’t always get the medical help they need or desire. Fortunately, that may be changing. Let’s take a look at this promising new option for our dedicated military personnel . . .

Help is on the Horizon
In an April 18 Medical News Today article, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will search for innovative ways to grow large volumes of bone tissues for craniofacial reconstruction for the soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The latest techniques in regenerative medicine, as to the treatment of wounded soldiers, are part of a $250 million national effort. DOD officials released information on the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). AFIRM is made up of two civilian research consortiums working with the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

"This is by far the largest federal investment ever made in regenerative medicine, and it's no coincidence that the Texas Medical Center is playing an important role," said Rice University President David Leebron. "Rice and UT-Houston's collaborative research in this area is at the forefront of this rapidly growing field."

"Dr. Mikos and Dr. Wong have been pioneers in the development of new tissue-engineering technologies that can be used for facial reconstruction for victims of catastrophic injury," said Dr. Peter Davies, executive vice president for research at UT-Houston.

Tissue engineering grows human tissues like bone, cartilage and skin that can be surgically transplanted without the risk of rejection. Tissue engineers will usually use a patient’s own cells to base the new tissue.  They place them on biodegradable templates and stimulate them with chemical and physical cues.

Mikos is the founding editor of the journal Tissue Engineering and president-elect of the North American Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society.  And, he is one of the world’s experts on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
"All of our efforts, both here in Houston and around the nation, are aimed at moving forward immediately to deliver therapies to the thousands of soldiers who have been wounded in this time of war," Mikos said.

The consortium partners who investigated technology in craniofacial reconstruction will include the use of biopolymers as matrices for tissue regeneration and the delivery of different drugs to prevent infection and promote healing.

"We are honored to be part of this consortium, which will allow us to bring to fruition many years of collaborative research with Rice University and apply novel techniques to aid the reconstruction of devastating facial defects sustained by our military personnel," Wong said.

Wong, the director of the UT Dental Branch at Houston's Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residency training program, holds surgical appointments at Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center, Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, Ben Taub General Hospital and The Methodist Hospital. He said AFIRM's bench-to-bedside research efforts in Houston will help ensure that the technology developed for the military will also benefit civilian victims of trauma (as reported in Medical News Today).

The partnership between Mikos and Wong is the foundation of the research that is being conducted in UT-Houston’s new research facility, the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences. This partnership has provided the basis for a joint educational program combining oral and maxillofacial surgery residency training at UT-Houston. 

With this new research undertaking, there appears to be hope for wounded soldiers who up to this point have been without. Perhaps the research being done will discover even more ways to help not only wounded soldiers, but civilians as well.