title: Adipose tissue engineering: the future of breast and soft tissue reconstruction following tumor resection.
abstract: Reconstructive surgeons have always been at the forefront of medical technology. The history of reconstructive surgery began with ablative surgery, which was followed by tissue and organ transplantation, leading to contemporary tissue reconstruction. The field of reconstructive surgery is poised at the next stage of its evolution, namely tissue regeneration. The field of tissue engineering has largely defined this evolutionary leap. One active area of investigation is the development of tissue engineering strategies for adipose tissue. Bioengineers, life scientists, and reconstructive surgeons are synergistically coupling expertise in areas such as cell culture technology, tissue transfer, cell differentiation, angiogenesis, computer modeling, and polymer chemistry to regenerate adipose tissue de novo for breast replacement and soft-tissue augmentation following tumor resection. This work presents the current state of the art in adipose tissue engineering, as well the clinically translatable strategies currently under development. Semin. Surg. Oncol. 19:302-311, 2000.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Reparative Biology and Bioengineering, Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. cpatrick@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Patrick
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000639:trends; D001940:Breast / Q000098:blood supply; D018427:Breast Implants; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D046508:Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008408:Mastectomy; D008833:Microcirculation; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013524:Surgical Flaps