Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
Soft tissue injuries, involving muscles and the neurovascular system, often accompany bone fractures and represent one of the major complications for the healing of bone fractures. The Trauma Research Group at IHBI is establishing a rat model for soft tissue trauma to study the interaction between bone fractures and related soft tissue injuries. The insights gained with this model will then be used to develop new technologies and methods to improve the assessment and treatment and accelerate the healing of these injuries. For the characterisation of the soft tissue injury and the healing thereof in this experimental model, histology and immunohistochemistry methods are being used. Histology (the analysis of the structure of tissues) uses techniques to thinly section tissues and then apply specific stains to identify the individual tissue components. Immunohistochemistry utilises the principles of antibodies to bind to and label specific cells and tissues of interest.
The project aims to:
- Establish immunohistochemistry techniques to stain for hypoxia (low oxygen) and the identification of apoptotic and inflammatory cells in injured rat muscle.
- Utilise these techniques to characterise the distribution and time course of hypoxia and apoptotic and inflammatory cells in injured rat muscle.
- Embedding of bone specimens in paraffin wax
- Cryotome and/or microtome sectioning of bone/soft tissue specimens
- Immunohistochemistry - antibody staining for hypoxia, apoptotic and inflammantory cells
- Light and fluorescent microscopy and photography of stained specimens
- Image analysis to quantify staining
- Study level
- Honours
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Science and Engineering Faculty
- Research area
- Contact
- Please contact the supervisor.
Dr Roland Steck
Dr Mia Woodruff
Dr Kerry Manton
