OHIO STATE RECEIVES $18 MILLION TO STUDY STRESS, WOUND HEALING

   COLUMBUS – The National Institutes of Health has awarded more than $18 million to a group of Ohio State University faculty to study how stress and aging alter the speed by which wounds heal. The two grants combined represent one of the largest federal awards ever given to university researchers here.

   The two projects, each running for five years, represent the latest in more than a decade of study into the relationship that stress has on human health and immunity. Work on both grants will be centered in the university’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

   Ron Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics and director of the institute, will head efforts under both grants. At least 14 faculty from eight departments in four colleges at the university are working with Glaser on the project.

   “This is an outstanding recognition of the expertise of the faculty we have working in this area,” Glaser said. “These two grants will allow us to build on our current strong record of research and hopefully apply our findings to improving the health of all Americans.”

   Glaser and his colleagues work in a field called psychoneuroimmunology, PNI for short, which centers on the effects stress and emotional states have on the human immune system. Recent work has focused on how increased stress can slow the process of wound healing by as much as 40 percent. And that slowing of wound healing can be a serious problem for patients recovering from surgery.

   “I’m tremendously excited about these new awards from the NIH,” said Daniel Sedmak, interim dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health. “They provide great support for the institute and clearly make this university, this institute and this college one of the top five research centers in the country, if not the world, in the field of mind-body research.

   “We’re incredibly supportive of this initiative and deeply appreciate that Dr. Glaser and his colleagues have developed this effort from a basic research idea to one of the largest funded research programs at the university.”

   The first of the grants, made by NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and totaling $9,992,377, will fund the creation of a new Center for Stress and Wound Healing to be located in the OSU institute. The first year’s award is for $1.9 million.

   The second grant, amounting to $8,508,869, was provided by the National Institute of Aging and will focus on the relationships between stress, aging and wound healing. Researchers know that as humans age, their immune systems weaken. This project is aimed at better understanding that effect and testing methods of reducing immune loss. The first year’s award totals $1.7 million.

   U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, 15th district, said upon learning of the 2 NIH grant awards, “As a graduate of The Ohio State University and a lifelong Buckeye, I applaud the school and its stellar immunology department on this most impressive award.

   “The two NIH grants, totaling more than $18 million, will enable Ohio State to continue its efforts to better understand the relationship between stress and wound healing. I commend the efforts of Director Ron Glaser and his extraordinary research team for bringing yet another honor to this already-distinguished institution.”

   Ohio State University President William E. Kirwan said, “This new research initiative meshes wonderfully with our principal institutional goals, specifically at maintaining and improving our level of academic excellence.”

   “In addition to the important research that will be done, it will also offer our students insight into the best science imaginable, which can only enhance their educational experience. This kind of effort by our faculty, across multiple disciplines, is exactly what is needed to push Ohio State into the very top tier of America’s public research universities.”

   Both grants came after lengthy reviews by NIH experts. The center grant was one of five such awards given by NIH to establish centers to study mind-body interactions and health. Other awards went to the Universities of Pittsburgh, Michigan, Wisconsin and Miami. The Congress had mandated that the NIH create a new initiative to support mind-body research.

   Four primary projects are planned for the center grant.

   Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry, will head two studies intended to test whether people who undergo relaxation sessions will heal more quickly than those not using the relaxation techniques. Such intervention studies are important to test if the negative effects of stress may be intentionally counteracted.

   Philip Marucha, associate professor of periodontology and molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, will lead a study looking at the role the inflammatory process plays in wound healing and if loneliness, depression and anxiety affect the speed of wound healing.

   John Sheridan, professor of oral biology and molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, will use an animal model to study how stress impacts the levels of certain hormones necessary for the wound healing process.

   And Caroline Whitacre, professor and chair of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, will examine whether physical and psychological stress can delay or halt the wound healing process in spinal cord injuries.

   Kiecolt-Glaser, Marucha and Sheridan will each have related projects funded by the second, NIA grant.

   Ohio State’s PNI program has operated a long-standing mentorship program training postdoctoral fellows and graduate students for research in this field. The center grant will allow the institute to enhance that effort, improving the educational experience for future researchers.

   Current research projects under way this year at the Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research total more than $4.5 million. Active grants now total more than $47 million, Glaser said.

   Also working on research supported by the grants are William Malarkey, professor of internal medicine; Bradford Stokes, professor of physiology; Gary Berntson, Robert MacCallum and John Cacioppo (on leave to the University of Chicago), all professors of psychology; Carl Allen, professor of oral pathology; David Padgett, Firdaus Dhabhar and Ning Quan, all assistant professors of oral biology; and Phillip Popovich, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics.

Contact: Ronald Glaser, (614) 292-5526; Glaser.1@osu.edu
Written by Earle Holland, (614) 292-8384; Holland.8@osu.edu