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Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
PO Box 980614
Richmond, VA 23298-0614
Email: rdiegelm@vcu.edu
Telephone: 804-828-9677
Education
- Ph.D., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C, (Microbiology), 1970
- B.S., Mount Saint Mary's College, Emmitsburg, MD, 1965
Post-Doc
- U.S. Public Health Service
- Postdoc Fellowship, Natl. Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Physiology, N.I.H., Bethesda, MD
Research
The major research interest of this Laboratory of Tissue Repair is focused upon the signaling events
that occur during tissue injury, shock and repair. Following injury, an orderly sequence of events is
initiated to begin the healing process. The first stage begins at the time of injury when local
environmental factors such as low oxygen tension, lactate accumulation, cell debris, and foreign
materials serve as attractants to bring inflammatory cells to the area. Peripheral blood cells trapped
in the clot and growth factors released from platelets play critical roles to initiate the repair
process. Neutrophils are the first inflammatory cells to arrive at the wound site. As tissue
macrophages are attracted to the area, chemical signals are sent out to stimulate the fibroblasts in
the surrounding tissue to migrate to the site of injury and to proliferate. Several days following
injury, the expanded population of fibroblasts becomes intensely active in synthesizing new
extracellular matrix. During latter stages, the cells are engaged in a continuing process of wound
remodeling. Biochemical observations made in the dermal repair models provide valuable clues to
understanding the regulatory mechanisms involved in tissue repair throughout the body. When too much
scar tissue is deposited, then the many clinical problems associated with fibrosis are seen such as
keloids, hypertrophic scars, strictures, adhesions, liver cirrhosis and Crohn's disease. In contrast,
when healing is impaired, chronic pressure, diabetic and venous stasis ulcers can develop. This
laboratory has found recently that pressure ulcers contain excessive neutrophils in pressure ulcers
that in turn release damaging enzymes such as MMP-8 and elastase that destroy the extracellular matrix
and growth factors needed for healing. Strategies are being developed to inhibit the influx of
neutrophils into the ulcer site and also to inhibit their destructive enzymes so healing may proceed.
Our research studies involve human subjects, animal models and reconstituted tissue culture and cell
culture systems. The laboratory has the capacity to examine these clinical problems using state of the
art biochemical and molecular biology techniques. In recent years the laboratory’s research interests
have been expanded and combined with other clinical scientists in the VCU Reanimation, Engineering and
Shock center (http://www.vcu.edu/vcures/ ). These new initiatives are focused on combat casualty care
and the development of novel strategies to achieve metabolic down-regulation as a mechanism to treat
shock in trauma patients. In addition we have recently discovered a novel technology to control severe
hemorrhage. This new product is called WoundStat and is being further developed and marketed by
TraumaCure ( http://traumacure.com ). This life-saving technology is applicable in the battlefield as
well in the civilian sector to save many lives following trauma. Other studies are focused on the use
of Immune-Regulating Hormones such as Androstenediol to optimize the wound healing response in
patients where the healing process is compromised. Recently the laboratory received a major grant from
the US Army to study “Optimization of Wound Healing to Limit Infection. The Laboratory of Tissue
Repair has a long history of research and training, dating back to 1972 and currently Dr. Diegelmann
is Program Director of a NIH Institutional NRSA to train postdoctoral fellows in the area of tissue
repair. Overall the laboratory is engaged in highly translational research to develop new strategies
to treat the many clinical problems associated with tissue injury, tissue repair and shock.
Publications
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1101 E Marshall St | PO Box 980614 | Richmond, VA 23298 | ph 804.828.9762 | fax 804.828.1473
Site Update July 20, 2008, Responsible Unit - Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, biochemgrad@mail.vcu.edu
Virginia Commonwealth University,
VCU School of Medicine
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