Lipoplasty: from body contouring to tissue engineering.
OBJECTIVE
The reader is presumed to have a broad understanding of plastic surgical procedures and concepts. After studying this article, the participant should be able to: Physicians may earn 1 hour of Category 1 CME credit by successfully completing the examination based on material covered in this article. The examination begins on page ***.


BACKGROUND
The rapid development of disciplines such as cell therapy and tissue engineering has focused attention on stem cells as the ideal cellular substrate for new tissues. Human adipose tissue is a potential source of such stem cells.


OBJECTIVE
We review the role of human adipose tissue in stem cell research and describe the procurement of stem cells from the stromal vascular fraction of human adipose tissue obtained through suction-assisted lipoplasty.


METHODS
Raw lipoaspirate obtained through suction-assisted lipoplasty was washed in phosphate-buffered saline and digested with collagenase. The collagenase was then inactivated by fetal bovine serum and the cells were centrifuged for 10 minutes at 1200 x g. The resulting cell pellet was resuspended, plated, and maintained in nondifferentiating control media.


RESULTS
Processing of 250 to 500 mL of suctioned tissue routinely yielded 2 to 6 x 10(8) processed lipoaspirate cells. Cell viability was typically >95%. These cells have been shown to differentiate in vitro into at least the adipogenic, chondrogenic, myogenic, neurogenic, and osteogenic lineages in the presence of specific induction factors.


CONCLUSIONS
Adipose tissue may be an ideal source of stem cells, because it is abundant, easy to obtain in large quantities, and safe to procure. Such a development could place the plastic surgeon at the epicenter of medical research. Issues that require further research include elucidation of site-specific differences in fat cells, the use of vacuum-assisted lipoplasty and ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty in procuring stem cells, and the development of more efficient and convenient tissue processing techniques. (Aesthetic Surg J 2002;22:121-127.).
Ashjian
Peter H
PH
Laboratory for Regenerative Bioengineering and Repair, Departments of Surgery and Orthopedics, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
De Ugarte
Daniel A
DA
Katz
Adam J
AJ
Hedrick
Marc H
MH