Stem Cells from Fat Cells for Tissue Reconstruction

Stefami Bucher of the San Gallicano Institute (Italy), Rita Falcioni of the Regina Elena Cancer Institute (Italy), and colleagues have isolated and characterized adult fat cell-derived stem cells from patients undergoing lipoaspiration in order to investigate the ability of the fat cells to maintain their stem cell characteristics in in vitro cultures to the point where once transplanted they could aid in tissue regeneration.

Explaining that adipose tissues share several biological properties with bone marrow, they can be found in abundance, they can be obtained from patients undergoing noninvasive lipoaspirate procedures, and they have the potential to be useful in a range of therapeutic applications, the researchers submit that the use of lipoaspirate as filling material is a powerful technique for tissue repair in plastic surgery. Combined with purified adipose-derived stem cells the time necessary to achieve the desired results is significantly shortened.

The published manuscript, entitled 'Purification and characterization of adipose-derived stem cells from patients with lipoaspirate transplant', is available in the 2010 Cell Transplantation journal.