Autologous in vivo adipose tissue engineering in hyaluronan-based gels--a pilot study.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

There is a major clinical need for strategies for adequately reconstructing the soft tissue defects found after deep burns, tumor resection, or trauma. A promising solution is adipose tissue engineering with preadipocytes, stem-cell derived precursors of the adipose tissue, implanted within biomaterials. This pilot study evaluated hyaluronan gels mixed with autologous undifferentiated preadipocytes in a pig model for their potency to generate new fat. Preadipocytes were isolated from intra-abdominal pig fat by collagenase digestion, plated on fibronectin-coated culture dishes in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium/Ham's F12 (Biochrom, Berlin, Germany) combined with 10% pig serum, expanded, and mixed with hyaluronan gel. Two types of gels with varying degrees of amidation of the carboxyl groups were tested (HYADD3, HYADD4). Cell-loaded gels and unseeded controls were injected subcutaneously into the ears of three pigs, explanted at 6 wk, and analyzed histologically. Both cell-loaded specimens were detected macroscopically. They demonstrated a slight volume effect with limited stability after 6 wk. Unloaded HYADD3 and HYADD4 controls could not be identified at the time of explantation. Histology of HYADD3 revealed islets of mature adipocytes and vessels embedded in fat tissue surrounded by gel. In contrast, no fat formation was found in HYADD4 gels when implanted in the ear. Histolo

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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