Searching for the favorable donor site for fat injection: in vivo study using the nude mice model.
BACKGROUND
The use of suctioned fat grafts for correction of soft tissue defects is a widespread procedure in esthetic and reconstructive surgery. The main disadvantage of this simple and sensible procedure is the unpredictable absorption rate of the fat graft. A lot of research has been performed aiming for enhancement of the take of the fat grafts.


OBJECTIVE
Our study was performed to find if there is any favorable donor site for fat harvesting.


METHODS
This in vivo experiment using the nude mice model enables the study of the long-term survival of human fat in an animal model. The fat was harvested from three donor areas: the thigh, abdomen, and breast of a 48-year-old woman who came for an elective esthetic procedure. After centrifugation, 1 cc of fat was injected subcutaneously into the scalp of the nude mouse. There were 15 mice in each of the three groups, according to the selected donor sites. The animals were sacrificed 16 weeks after the procedure. The extracted fat was evaluated in terms of weight, volume, and six histologic parameters: integrity, vascularization, cyst formation, fibrosis, necrosis, and inflammation.


RESULTS
This study could not find any statistically significant differences between the three investigated donor sites in the evaluated parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of this study, there is no favorable area for harvesting fat grafts. The donor site can be chosen according to the preference of the surgeon and the patient.
Ullmann
Yehuda
Y
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Rambam Medical Center, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Ha'Aliya Street 8, Haifa 31096, Israel. y_ullmann@rambam.health.gov.il
Shoshani
Oren
O
Fodor
Adriana
A
Ramon
Yitzhak
Y
Carmi
Nurit
N
Eldor
Liron
L
Gilhar
Amos
A
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000637:transplantation*; D000818:Animals; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D023421:Models, Animal; D013518:Surgery, Plastic; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting