Always reading about fat grafting.
This is a study, very science-y, so I will make it short.
October 2013 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal. “Prevalence of Endogenous CD34 Adipose Stem Cells Predicts Human Fat Graft Rentention in a Xenograft Model.” This is out of Pittsburgh and Dr. Rubin.
Fat transfer is becoming widely used. I am among its fans. The issue is fat grafting is unpredictable. We estimate loss of 50% of the volume injected. This study is trying to figure out why there is variability between patients.
They looked at 8 patients. They centrifuged the fat and then injected into 4-5 mice per patient. Graft mass and volumes were measured and histologic evaluation done including staining for vessels at 8 weeks after transplant. They then analyzed for surface markers. They acknowledge this is a small sample size and was only followed to 8 weeks, but they show 4-8 weeks is sufficient for graft vasculature formation.
Findings?
- Retention of fat varied widely between subjects: 36-68%
- It seems to correlate with CD34+
- It did not seem to correlate with sex, age, or BMI
- Interestingly they also looked at new blood vessels to the grafts, and they did not see a strong correlation between blood vessel density and graft retention.
So?
Wouldn’t it be useful to know if you are likely to have 36% fat survival versus 68%?
We may be able to predict who will be more successful with fat transfer by looking at the concentration of CD34+ progenitor cells within the stromal vascular fraction. This test is one which could be done in hospital based labs which have flow cytometers and could look at fat tissue samples. More studies need to be done to confirm these findings before this becomes standard.