Annual Trainee Doctors’ Prize Evening, Thursday 5th November 2015

Annual Trainee Doctors’ Prize Evening, Thursday 5th November 2015. Centre for Experimental Medicine, Queens University Belfast. ORAL PRESENTATIONS Investigating Dermal Scaffold-Stem Cell Constructs in Wound Healing Sandra E McAllister, James Bojdo, Christina O’Neill, Jasenka Guduric-Fuchs, Reinhold Medina, Alan W Stitt Introduction: Chronic wounds affect around 200 000 people in the UK, costing around £3 billion annually. Wound healing problems are associated with hypoxia of the wound microenvironment. Promoting angiogenesis with autologous cell-based treatments requires both the correct cell and the optimal application method. Aims: This study has been designed to investigate the use of commercially-available dermal scaffolds in delivering stem cell therapy to wounds. Methods: Endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) were isolated from adult human peripheral blood, and cultured on one of three scaffolds in vitro (Matriderm®, Glyaderm®, Optimaix). The capacity of the cells to form three-dimensional microtubular constructs in scaffolds was determined. Scaffold-cell constructs were implanted into full thickness wounds on the dorsum of athymic nude mice. Wound blood flow was measured using laser Doppler imaging. Wound size was calculated from serial photographs. Results: ECFCs formed more numerous and more stable microtubular constructs in Matriderm® than in other scaffolds. Preliminary results show that wounds with implanted ECFCMatriderm® constructs had significantly higher blood flow both 2 and 4 days after wounding than wounds treated with Matriderm® alone. Discussion: Wound healing problems cause substantial morbidity and considerable costs. Characterising cell delivery methods is essential to translate research into clinical use The role of cyclooxygenase 2 expression in stage II and stage III colon cancer survival RT Gray, MM Cantwell, HG Coleman, MB Loughrey, P Bankhead, S McQuaid, RF O’Neill, K Arthur, CR Cardwell, BT Johnston, J James, P Hamilton, M Salto-Tellez, LJ Murray Introduction: The association between overexpression of cyclooxgenase 2 (COX-2) and survival in colorectal cancer remains incompletely investigated. Aims: To investigate the role of COX-2 expression and survival in a population-based cohort of patients with stage II and III colon cancer. Methods: Immunohistochemical expression of COX-2 (positive versus negative) was assessed in 663 stage II and III colon cancer patients. Five-year follow-up data were obtained through the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for colon cancer-specific survival (CSS). Results: Medication history was available for n=607 (91.6%) patients and aspirin use within this subgroup was n=130 (21.4%). COX-2 positive cancers (p=0.01) were slightly older but stage distribution and aspirin use were similar between the COX-2 groups. COX-2 expression and aspirin use were not associated with improved CSS after adjusting for age, gender and stage. CSS was improved amongst aspirin users with COX-2 positive tumours (HR 0.52, CI 0.29-0.99) but this finding was no longer statistically significant when adjuvant chemotherapy and co-morbidities were considered (HR 0.67, CI 0.28-1.63). Discussion: COX-2 expression does not appear to have prognostic or predictive potential within this population-based cohort of colon cancer. Cognitive Rehabilitation in MS. Evidence for Neuroplasticity. A fMRI study. Jamie Campbell, Dawn Langdon, Waqar Rashid, Mara Cercignan