Appeared in Exemplar, the Wayne State University Engineering alumni magazine, 2002
After 60 years of crash tests and applying blunt force, researchers here are turning to the human cell for answers during the next phase in bioengineering research.
Having nearly completed mapping the human body's tolerance to severe impacts, the researchers are beginning to examine injuries at the cellular level to learn more about how cells are damaged.
"I'm envisioning the day when you can walk away from most car crashes," says Albert King, distinguished professor of Bioengineering, and director of the WSU Bioengineering Center, where research has contributed to the design of safety advancements in seat belts, air bags, interior padding and racing seats.
Severe auto accident victims now end up in the ER instead of the morgue. But in many cases, victims still suffer from debilitating closed head and neck injuries, as well as injuries to the lower limbs. Safety designs have eliminated many acute, but not functional injuries -- damaged limbs, and minor brain damage -- injuries that people can live with, but that affect their quality of life, Dr. King explains.
To gain understanding of functional injuries, Dr. King and WSU researchers plan to study the function of a cell as well as how it is affected and injured upon impact. Then, 10 to 20 years from now, doctors may be able to prevent and better treat injuries to reduce long-lasting effects, he says.
"We want to know how the cell's function is compromised by injury," says Dr. King. "We want to know how a cell is injured, why it dies, and how to make it survive."
The cell membrane controls a lot of the cell's function, including what enters and leaves the cell. Research of that scale requires expertise in the areas of molecular biology, biomechanics, physics, physiology, engineering and medicine. Wayne State investigators from across these disciplines are starting to work together at the Bioengineering Center to study impact bioengineering, and to suggest improvements in vehicle and airplane design, sports equipment and other applications.
The researchers want to analyze the forces that cause long-lasting or permanent damage to the brain. Along those same lines, researchers are also trying to determine where lingering pain comes from following a head and neck injury in a crash. These are the big questions that remain after years of impact injury research. The answers may lead to the reduction of further pain and suffering, not to mention billions of dollars in rehabilitation costs.
With severe impact injuries, secondary injuries, including brain damage, start to set in within hours or a few days of the accident, says C.P. Lee, distinguished professor of biochemistry at the WSU School of Medicine. The injury to the cells may cause changes to their biomedical processes and affect their basic metabolic functions, adds Dr. Lee, who collaborates with Bioengineering Center researchers. Currently, she is researching what goes wrong and how to stop the injury in its tracks before it causes permanent damage.
Once researchers pin down the problem, treating it could be as easy as administering antioxidants and calcium blockers through IVs in the emergency room, she says. Getting antioxidants and calcium blockers into the cells before oxidative stress causes too much damage may reduce the long-term effects of injuries.
"(The research) is very, very promising," Dr. Lee says. She explains that cell damage can be caused by oxidative stress brought on by an overload of calcium ions triggered by a severe impact. The overload can inhibit oxygen transfer within a cell. If the mitochondria, which produce energy in the cell, cannot transfer oxygen effectively, they cannot produce enough energy to maintain the brain or other organs.
Across all disciplines, researchers are working toward the same goal -- finding out how much stress a cell can take, whether the impact causes chemical, mechanical or physiological changes, Dr. King says. The WSU School of Medicine is currently studying programmed cell death, or apoptosis, to figure out how much a cell can take before it is injured so bad that it "commits suicide," Dr. King says. "All we want to know is what it is that causes a cell to go into apoptosis or necrosis, and how the mechanical force causes that to happen."
One way to study impact is to apply a known force or stress level to an individual cell, then analyze the impact on that cell and monitor its function after it has been stretched, Dr. King says. The technology to measure such small forces already exists. One type of sensor currently used in laboratories can measure forces in the order of piconewtons, a unit one-trillionth the size of a newton, the basic unit of force. That sensor measures the force a cell applies to a platform when it moves across the surface. That same technology can be used to measure the impact on one cell.
Another idea is to partner with the WSU Smart Sensors and Integrated Microsystems Lab to develop miniature smart sensors. Much later on, Dr. King hopes this research will lead to the construction of a computer model of cellular injures.
Dr. King acknowledges that the full benefits of these investigations may not be realized for more than a decade. For now, the idea is more of a vision than reality. "It's more like trying to find an answer to a question that hasn't been asked yet," Dr. King says. "Our center is externally funded. We have to stay ahead of the game."
Before such research can begin, the Bioengineering Research Center must first invest in sophisticated equipment such as the type that molecular biologists use to study DNA, and bring together people with more than just a molecular biology background. "We have to get our own people upgraded, hire more people in the field, and make use of whatever knowledge is available at the medical school," says Dr. King.
The catalyst for this vision was created recently with the approval of a $1 million grant from the Whitaker Foundation that should pave the way for a permanent Biomedical Engineering Department. With an additional $1 million grant from Wayne State, and about $2.5 million more from industry, the new department can be launched, and accelerate research in the biomedical areas that can make real differences in people's lives.
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