Stem cells. The new frontier. I know these topics seem far off for a cosmetic plastic surgeon. But we plastic surgeons deal a lot in fat. We do liposuction, we sculpt it, and we graft it. I helped the group at Stanford with their fat stem cell research by giving them material to study- freshly removed fat. This is an exciting new direction in medicine and science. As we talk about buzzwords, stem cells and regeneration have buzz for a reason.
What sources of stem cells are there?
- Embryonic- pluripotential stem cells. Can form any cell in the body
- Fetal -amniotic, cord blood. These are multipotential cells
- Adult- Bone marrow, fat
We know our body, even we old decrepit adults, regenerate. Our skin regenerates and turns over every 3 weeks. Our intestinal lining every 6 days. Our bones, every 6 years. So how can we harness this energy of turnover? This talk at our recent meeting left more questions than answers.
Can we increase the number of stem cells?
Can we induce pluripotential cells? They have started to do “reprogramming” of stem cells, to make stem cells pluripotential that otherwise would not be.
The plastic surgeons interest has stemmed a great deal from our experience with fat and fat grafting. (Who knew fat was such a valuable resource in the body?) The hope is someday we could harvest fat, take out the stem cells, and program them to become liver cells, insulin producing cells, etc. They have found there is some “memory” in the cells, so if you wanted to try to make skeletal bone, thigh fat is a better source than fat from other parts of the body. Can we identify subpopulations of fat? Is one better for blood vessels, another for bone, another for cartilage?
This research has been going on for a decade. Don’t expect to be able to suck out some fat and grow new knee cartilage next week. But that may be the direction we are heading.