• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.653-658
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• 2008

Purpose: Skin and soft tissue defect is one of the major challenges faced by plastic surgeons. Adipose derived stromal cells, which can be harvested in large quantities with low morbidity, display multilineage mesodermal potential. Therefore, adipose derived stromal cells have been met with a great deal of excitement by the field of tissue engineering. Recently, Adipose derived stromal cells have been isolated and cultured to use soft tissue restoration. In order to apply cultured cells for clinical purpose, however, FDA approved facilities and techniques are required, which may be difficult for a clinician who cultures cells in a laboratory dedicated to research to utilize this treatment for patients. In addition, long culture period is needed. Fortunately, adipose derived stromal cells are easy to obtain in large quantities without cell culture. The purpose of this study is to present a possibility of using uncultured adipose derived stromal cells for wound coverage. Methods: Seven patients who needed skin and soft tissue restoration were included. Five patients had diabetic foot ulcers, 1 patient got thumb amputation, and 1 patient had tissue defect caused by resection of squamous cell carcinoma. The patients' abdominal adipose tissues were obtained by liposuction. The samples were digested with type I collagenase and centrifuged to obtain adipose derived stromal cells. The isolated adipose derived stromal cells were applied over the wounds immediately after the wound debridement. Fibrin was used as adipose derived stromal cells carrier. Occlusive dressing was applied with films and foams and the wounds were kept moist until complete healing. Results: One hundred to one hundred sixty thousand adipose derived stromal cells were isolated per ml aspirated adipose tissue. All patients' wounds were successfully covered with the grafted adipose derived stromal cells in a 17 to 27 day period. No adverse events related to this treatment occurred. Conclusion: The use of uncultured adipose derived stromal cells was found to be safe and effective treatment for wound coverage without donor site morbidity.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.534-539
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• 2012

Background Autologous fat grafting evolved over the twentieth century to become a quick, safe, and reliable method for restoring volume. However, autologous fat grafts have some problems including uncertain viability of the grafted fat and a low rate of graft survival. To overcome the problems associated with autologous fat grafts, we used uncultured adipose tissue-derived stromal cell (stromal vascular fraction, SVF) assisted autologous fat grafting. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of SVF in a clinical trial. Methods SVF cells were freshly isolated from half of the aspirated fat and were used in combination with the other half of the aspirated fat during the procedure. Between March 2007 and February 2008, a total of 9 SVF-assisted fat grafts were performed in 9 patients. The patients were followed for 12 weeks after treatment. Data collected at each follow-up visit included clinical examination of the graft site(s), photographs for historical comparison, and information from a patient questionnaire that measured the outcomes from the patient perspective. The photographs were evaluated by medical professionals. Results Scores of the left facial area grafted with adipose tissue mixed with SVF cells were significantly higher compared with those of the right facial area grafted with adipose tissue without SVF cells. There was no significant adverse effect. Conclusions The subjective patient satisfaction survey and surgeon survey showed that SVF-assisted fat grafting was a surgical procedure with superior results.