Granting Researchers a Chance to Shine
The Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research
(FAER) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the
award recipients from the August 2002 submissions.
FAER is grateful to ASA, its individual members, component
societies, subspecialty societies and corporations
for the generous contributions that allow funding
of these awards. The descriptions of the projects
were provided by the investigators.
Research Training Grant
Yungping Li, M.D., Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts: “Myometrial
Quiescence and Preterm Labor — Toward a Molecular
Understanding.” Mentor: Kathleen G. Morgan,
Ph.D. Co-Sponsor: Society for Obstetric Anesthesia
and Perinatology-Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology
Endowment Fund.
Many pregnancy-related diseases originate from
dysfunctional uterine contractions. Understanding
the factors that regulate uterine contractility during
labor is key to prevention of premature births and
more rational approaches to labor management.
Uterine smooth muscle contraction and relaxation are
regulated through extrinsic modulators such as hormones,
neuronal factors and anatomical changes and intrinsic
subcellular regulatory mechanisms. This proposal will
focus on the little-studied gestation-dependent changes
in basal contractility intrinsic to myometrium. The
general aim of this proposal is to test the hypothesis
that intracellular regulatory mechanisms are adaptively
and dynamically changed during pregnancy and labor.
The specific aims are to investigate roles of ERK/Caldesmon
pathway in the regulation of uterine contractility.
It is hoped that insights into the mechanisms of regulation
of uterine contractility may potentially lead to the
development of new strategies of therapeutic intervention
in cases of preterm labor and dysfunctional labor.
Research Fellowship Grant
Larry Chu, M.D., M.S., Stanford University,
Stanford, California: “Measurement of Tolerance
and Hyperalgesia in Pain Patients on Chronic Opioid
Therapy.” Mentor: David Clark, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Sponsor: GlaxoSmithKline.
The fundamental goal of this proposal is to develop
a sensitive method to measure opioid-induced tolerance
and hyperalgesia in patients receiving opioids for the
treatment of chronic pain. Considerable controversy
exists concerning whether or not tolerance and hyperalgesia
exist in patients receiving opioids for chronic pain
and, if it does exist, the clinical relevance of these
effects. This study will examine a method of measuring
opioid-induced tolerance and hyperalgesia in chronic
pain patients by directly measuring the opioid concentration
versus response relationship and will document the changes
in this relationship over time. Additionally, we will
follow pain thresholds and tolerances to heat and cold
stimuli. Our hypotheses are: 1) Chronic opioid therapy
changes the opioid concentration versus effect curve;
2) Two distinct changes exists, a) a change in drug
potency (tolerance) and b) a change in pain perception
(hyperalgesia); 3) These changes can be detected in
an acute experiment in which the curve is experimentally
measured during the course of opioid therapy and compared
with baseline assessment. If this study demonstrates
tolerance and hyperalgesia in chronic pain patients,
it will suggest that these are causally related to the
opioid administration. However, a causal relationship
cannot be established without a properly randomized
and controlled trial. Once we have demonstrated that
this methodology is sufficiently sensitive to measure
tolerance and hyperalgesia with chronic opioid administration,
it is our intent to determine the causal relationship
with opioid therapy in a properly randomized and controlled
trial.
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