Cytori Authors Review on Opportunity for Adipose Stem and Regenerative Cells

Cytori Therapeutics has announced it authored a review describing the emerging medical opportunity for adipose stem and regenerative cells in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.

The paper, appearing in the September 2006 supplement of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, reviews scientific and clinical data demonstrating the potential of adipose stem and regenerative cells in applications from elective cosmetic surgery, wrinkle therapy and breast augmentation to repair of soft tissue defects and radiation damage post mastectomy.

"Regenerative cell based strategies are poised to change the practice of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery and address an important need for providing a natural option for cosmetic fillers," said Marc H. Hedrick, M.D., President for Cytori Therapeutics and co-author of the paper.

"Adipose tissue in particular represents an ideal source of a patient's own stem and regenerative cells due to their abundance, accessibility, multiple healing and repair mechanisms, and because plastic surgeons have a significant comfort level with the harvest and manipulation of adipose tissue."

Identifying an appropriate filler in combination with stem and regenerative cells could provide an optimized tissue environment in which to create an engineered tissue that can be used as semi-permanent filler material.

Adipose tissue offers such a source due to the abundance of stem and regenerative cells that reside within this tissue.

Adipose stem and regenerative cells can be harvested by using the patient's own adipose tissue as the cell source.

Cells, unlike small molecules or proteins, must be harvested and purified. For clinical applications, it is necessary to have a meaningful number of cells in order to achieve the desired medical effect.

In most cases, this requires cells to be replicated multiple times. Because adipose tissue contains 100 to 1000 times more stem cells per cubic centimeter than other common stem cell sources, a patient's own cells can be accessed for re-implantation in about an hour.

Regenerative medicine overcomes limitations of current treatments by supporting healing through multiple repair mechanisms.

As described in the review, adipose stem and regenerative cells are multipotent, meaning they may differentiate into cardiac muscle, bone, cartilage, spinal disc and adipose tissue as directed by local biological cues.

Additionally, they may preserve damaged cells at-risk of dying and, importantly, they have the capacity to promote controlled blood vessel growth through angiogenesis, enabling oxygen and nutrient supply to the desired area.

"Our review details the exciting science and early clinical work surrounding regenerative medicine in reconstructive surgery," added Dr. Hedrick.

"To make this technology available to the medical community, we have developed our Celution™ System to automate the processing of stem and regenerative cells from adipose tissue at the bedside in real-time."

"We believe that through further clinical work such as the post-mastectomy breast reconstruction study in Japan that is utilizing the Celution™ System, and additional clinical trials, we will be able to offer a new treatment paradigm for this growing field."