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LSUHSC's Bazan awarded ARRA grant to preserve vision
Date:7/14/2009

New Orleans, LA Haydee Bazan, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has been awarded a $710,000 grant over two years by the National Institutes of Health to advance her research on potential therapeutic approaches to heal corneal injuries. The grant was awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Dr. Bazan's research project explores the mechanisms of inflammation and repair during corneal wound healing. Sustained corneal inflammation may lead to destruction and corneal ulceration, but inflammation is a component of the corneal wound healing process. There is a critical balance between signaling mechanisms that promote either cellular damage or repair. This balance is fundamental to the maintenance of corneal integrity and function and extensive damage occurs when the equilibrium between chemical messengers (lipid mediators) that are released in response to tissue injury in the cornea is lost. Dr. Bazan's research will focus on several of these mediators platelet-activating factor (PAF) which appears to play a key role contributing to tissue destruction, and the arachidonic acid (AA)- mediators that play a key role in tissue repair. AA-mediators, lipoxin A4 and the aspirin-triggered epi-LxA4, will be studied .

"If our hypothesis is correct, PAF antagonists, and the lipoxins and epi-lipoxins can become effective therapeutic tools for maintaining the transparency and integrity of the cornea," notes Dr. Bazan.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, each year, more than 2.5 million eye injuries occur and 50,000 people permanently lose part or all of their vision.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, eye injury is a leading cause of monocular blindness (blindness in one eye) in the United States. In 2004, about 37,000 eye injuries occurred in the workplace that resulted in one or more days away from work. The majority of t
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Contact: Leslie Capo
lcapo@lsuhsc.edu
504-568-4806
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Source:Eurekalert

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