Carrie Gurnee, a graduate student working with Prof. B. Hargrave, won the 3rd place award at the  87th Annual Meeting Virginia Academy of Science which was held in Richmond, Virginia in May of this year. Her talk was titled "Platelet Gel: A Novel Treatment for Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)". Authors were C. W. Gurnee, B. Y. Hargrave, S. Beebe, and S. Xiao.

AUTOLOGOUS PLATELET GEL: A NOVEL TREATMENT FOR MYOCARDIAL INFARCTIONS (HEART ATTACK).  C. W. Gurnee^1,2, B.Y. Hargrave^1,2, S.J. Beebe.¹ & S. Xiao¹, ¹Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, Norfolk VA 23510 and ²Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA 23529. 

Background: Autologous Platelet Rich Leukocyte Plasma (PRLP) or "platelet gel" as it is sometimes called is a platelet/leukocyte rich concentrate made from the whole blood of a patient. PRLP, when applied to soft tissue wounds, enhances healing by placing a high concentration of growth factors (released from platelets activated by a known platelet activator) at the site of damage. We examined PRLP in the rabbit heart after Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and reperfusion and tested its ability to support and/or improve mechanical left ventricular function.

Methods & Results-In Vitro study: In the rabbit Langendorff heart treated with PRLP (injected into the myocardium of the left ventricle) and exposed to global ischemia there was a shift in systolic and diastolic pressure curves suggesting less systolic and diastolic dysfunction compared to the saline treated controls. The PRLP treated but not the saline treated hearts were capable of increasing left ventricular work function to a level above baseline after 40 min of reperfusion. In Vivo study: Fourteen days after an AMI, the rabbit heart treated with PRLP (injected into the myocardium of the left ventricle) at the time of the infarct was stressed with dobutamine and was capable of increasing left ventricular positive dP/dt and decreasing negative dP/dt compared to the saline treated heart.

Conclusion: PRLP supports mechanical left ventricular function in the rabbit heart following AMI. These preliminary data suggest that PRLP, injected into the myocardium may function to regulate left ventricular pressures and improve function following AMI.