{"236651":{"#nid":"236651","#data":{"type":"news","title":"NIH Awards $2 Million For Engineering Approach to Understanding Lymphedema","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe National Institutes of Health has awarded Georgia Tech a $2-million research grant to unravel the mechanical forces at play in lymphedema, a poorly understood disease with no cure and little hope for sufferers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELymphedema develops when the body fails to circulate lymphatic fluid, a mixture of immune cells, proteins, and lipids. This fluid builds up in the arms, legs and genitals \u2014 sometimes causing extreme swelling and permanent remodeling of the tissue. The mechanisms involved in the progression of the disease are unclear, so professor J. Brandon Dixon\u2019s lab will use an engineering approach to studying the disease. This innovative methodology could lead to new technologies to test and treat lymphatic disease.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESolving this biological problem with engineering is an ideal strategy, Dixon said, because the lymphatic system is an engineered system \u2014 essentially a very complicated network of pumps. In a healthy person, the lymphatic system pumps the lymphatic fluid around the body, draining excess fluid from tissues and returning it to the circulation. Understanding the details of how the system works, and what goes wrong when it fails during lymphedema, requires engineering expertise.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI really think the reason we\u2019re so far behind in lymphatic research compared to vascular research is technology,\u201d said Dixon, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Mechanical Engineering. \u201cYou can go to the most advanced lymphedema center in the world and it\u2019s still difficult to say how well your lymphatic system is working.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDixon\u2019s lab is located in Georgia Tech\u2019s Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, a unique collaborative unit of experts from engineering and the life sciences. He\u2019s one of only a handful of engineers in the world that study the mechanical forces at work in lymphedema.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe lymphatic system is difficult to see and access, but Dixon\u2019s expertise lies in developing engineering technologies such as imaging and recreating the lymphatic environment in the lab. His lab has pioneered technologies to manipulate the micromechanical environment on cells and in isolated vessels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy teasing apart the workings of the lymphatic system, Dixon\u2019s research could lead to diagnostic technologies that measure how well the lymphatic system is functioning, and also to therapies that manipulate the system and stop the painful swelling that occurs during lymphedema.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor the past 30 years, little progress has been made in treating lymphedema. Patients are treated with compression wraps to limit painful swelling.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELimited research on the prevalence of lymphedema suggests that between 20 and 60 percent of post-mastectomy breast cancer patients develop the disease. One in six women will get breast cancer, estimates suggest. Worldwide, lymphedema affects more than 100 million people. In undeveloped countries, parasites can cause a severe form of lymphedema-related swelling known as filariasis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScientists cannot yet say what causes lymphedema in post-mastectomy breast cancer patients, nor can they assign a patient-specific risk of developing the disease. And since lymphedema can arise as long as six years after surgery, determining cause and effect is difficult. The later the onset, the more likely patients are to report the swelling to their general practitioner and not their cancer surgeon. This uneven reporting makes it hard to measure the burden that lymphedema places on the healthcare system.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s hard to measure the cost of lymphedema,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like a stroke where there\u2019s an obvious event that occurs and a rate of death. People don\u2019t die of lymphedema, per se.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELong-term lymphedema-related swelling is not from the fluid itself, but from actual growth of the affected limb through fibrosis and the deposition of fats. Scientists don\u2019t yet understand what causes this. Dixon\u2019s hypothesis is that something happens during breast cancer surgery that changes the mechanical forces on lymphatic vessels that impairs their ability to pump this fat-containing fluid.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf the pump doesn\u2019t work, it\u2019s like a feedback loop,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cYou get accumulation of fluid and other remodeling of the tissue, which in turn leads to greater lymphatic failure\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo test the hypothesis, Dixon\u2019s lab will mechanically perturb lymphatic vessels in isolated vessels, and cells. They\u2019ll stretch them and ramp up the fluid flow rates across them and observe changes in vessels function and remodeling. Clues about how the vessels work might be found in genes that are switched on and off, changes in pump rate, buildup of extracellular matrix, and other biological abnormalities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn another experiment, the lab will use animal models to explore what happens to the lymphatic vessels after breast cancer surgery. The researchers plan to destroy one lymphatic vessel and observe what happens to the system as it tries to compensate for the loss.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EData from the experiments will feed a mathematical model of the growth and remodeling of lymphatic vessels, which is under development by Dixon\u2019s collaborator on the project, Rudolph Gleason, an associate professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlso collaborating on the project is Mari Muthuchamy, a professor of medical physiology at the Texas A\u0026amp;M Health Science Center in College Station, Texas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis research is supported by the National Institutes of Health under award R01HL113061. Any conclusions or opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E177 North Avenue\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBrett Israel (404-385-1933) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or John Toon (404 894-6986) (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Brett Israel\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe National Institutes of Health has awarded Georgia Tech a $2-million research grant to unravel the mechanical forces at play in lymphedema, a poorly understood disease with no cure and little hope for sufferers.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"NIH has awarded Georgia Tech a $2-million research grant to unravel the mechanical forces at play in lymphedema."}],"uid":"27902","created_gmt":"2013-09-11 16:29:28","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:14:23","author":"Brett Israel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-09-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2013-09-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"237061":{"id":"237061","type":"image","title":"Assistant professor Brandon Dixon","body":null,"created":"1449243659","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:40:59","changed":"1475894911","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:31","alt":"Assistant professor Brandon Dixon","file":{"fid":"197696","name":"dixon-profile-lab.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-profile-lab_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-profile-lab_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":143203,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dixon-profile-lab_0.jpg?itok=glbRK4DF"}},"237051":{"id":"237051","type":"image","title":"Imaging pumping vessels","body":null,"created":"1449243659","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:40:59","changed":"1475894911","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:31","alt":"Imaging pumping vessels","file":{"fid":"197695","name":"dixon-weiler-lab.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-weiler-lab_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-weiler-lab_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":109730,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dixon-weiler-lab_0.jpg?itok=QjJuUEj3"}},"237071":{"id":"237071","type":"image","title":"An engineering approach to unravleing lymphedema","body":null,"created":"1449243659","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:40:59","changed":"1475894911","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:31","alt":"An engineering approach to unravleing lymphedema","file":{"fid":"197697","name":"dixon-kornuta-lab.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-kornuta-lab_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/dixon-kornuta-lab_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":112233,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/dixon-kornuta-lab_0.jpg?itok=kTlCJrhV"}}},"media_ids":["237061","237051","237071"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"23201","name":"brandon dixon"},{"id":"73641","name":"breast cancer complicaitons"},{"id":"73631","name":"lymph"},{"id":"73611","name":"lymphatic system"},{"id":"73621","name":"lymphatic vessels"},{"id":"73601","name":"lymphedema"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBrett Israel\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-385-1933\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}