Stem Cell Applications in Plastic Surgery
The use of stem cells in plastic surgery is still in the research stages, but there have been enough experiments in medical labs to show that the concepts involved are promising. Stem cell science and cosmetic surgery actually have the unusual potential of being mutually beneficial.
Generally speaking, cosmetic surgery uses implants of foreign substances to replace or enhance existing human characteristics. Breast augmentation and the use of botox to smooth facial lines are two prime examples of the concept. Botox is used to replace depleted fat cells that are a principal reason why we develop facial lines as we grow older. Breast implants are utilized to bolster and reposition existing fat tissue.
There have been several experiments that suggest stem cells can be “convinced” to morph into fat cells if properly prepared and injected. At the University of Illinois, Jeremy Mao took human stem cells and used these to grow fat tissue using “biologically compatible scaffolding.” He then successfully implanted the tissue into mice with an immune deficiency to prevent them from rejecting the implants.
Biological scaffolding is a term for constructing an artificial mat resembling the intracellular matrix bonding cells in normal tissue. This structure is then seeded with “pre-adipocytes,” which are stem cells in the process of developing into fat cells. An experiment using this procedure at Ohio State was successful in transforming the pre-adipocytes into fat cells, and keeping them alive and well in this artificial atmosphere.
These and other experiments from a few years ago are giving plastic surgeons hope that stem cell implants can be grown into fat cells resembling those that around them, comprising their environment. There is some indication (from other experiments) that stem cells tend to adopt the characteristics of their biological environment.
In the cosmetic surgery field, the term for adaptable stem cells is “adipose-deprived adult stem cells” (ADASCs). An adipose deprived stem cell is simply one that hasn’t received complete guidance on what it is meant to grow into. Placement of these cells near different types of cells (muscle, bone, fat, etc.) seems to cause them to perform like the cells around them. The theoretical conclusion is that ADASCs introduced into an environment with fat-grafted material may enhance and normalize the growth of the grafted tissue.
If all of these characteristics prove true, plastic surgeons could utilize stem cells to grow breast implants instead of using silicon. True human fat cells are going to act and feel much more like the real thing and be much less subject to hardening or dropping. They would be a more comfortable implant with a longer life span. The same would be true for using stem cells to integrate new fat cells into facial treatments instead of botox.
The flip side of the stem cell-plastic surgery connection is the fact that stem cells can be taken from the fat cells extracted during liposuction. Stem cells are actually simply new, partially grown cells that are in the process of developing into full human cells of some sort. These are the pre-adipocytes mentioned above. Scientists are learning how to manipulate them into becoming full cells of many types, used to treat many diseases.
The byproduct of liposuction can thus be an invaluable resource of stem cell material with which to conduct many medical procedures that are now being studied for such varied afflictions as Parkinson’s disease, Crone’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Cosmetic surgery patients undergoing liposuction could become stem cell donors for many medical uses.
Research is ongoing at the University of Pittsburgh under the guidance of Dr. Peter Rubin, who is also the president of the newly founded International Fat Applied Technology Society (IFATS) which is dedicated to furthering the use of fat, fat cells and stem cells in medicine.
In the not too distant future, cosmetic surgery may develop the perfect symbiosis by supplying through liposuction the core material for many other plastic surgery procedures. It’s pretty clear that the science is there; what remains is extensive experimentation to better understand the nature of how to manipulate stem cells for the various medical purposes now under consideration.
There is some irony in the notion that liposuction, once considered a hallmark of misplaced vanity, might become a major contributor to a new era of medicine – of which cosmetic surgery will be a small and respected component.
