The Centre, P.C. - Plastic Surgery Blog

Liposuction in Heart Disease Research - Monday, December 22, 2008

Stem cells are like the body's repair system. A stem cell can divide itself and produce more stem cells and it can also differentiate into many other types of cell, such as muscle, blood, or heart cells. These characteristics give them huge potential for medical treatments.

Stem cells can be grown in a laboratory and are the subject of much research. They can be of two kinds:

1. Embryonic stem cells -- taken for research from either a mouse or human embryo. Because of controversy over use of human embryos and the laws against it in many countries, most research is done with mouse stem cells. So far no approved treatments have been developed from embryonic stem cells and there is no testing in progress.
2. Adult stem cells -- derived from adult humans, perhaps a patient's own body. These cells can be found in children also. Adult stem cells cannot differentiate into any type of specific cell, only into related types of cell, such as types of blood cell. That means that if a certain type of cell is wanted, the adult stem cell must be taken from the right type of tissue to start with.
   

A successful use for adult stem cells has been bone marrow transplants as a treatment for leukemia.

Stem Cells Into Heart Cells

Two researchers in Australia have developed a procedure of taking stem cells from fatty tissue and turning them into heart cells. They used human fat obtained by surgeons through liposuction. In their laboratory they then isolated the stem cells in the fat. These fat-derived stem cells were then cultured in a special medium and chemically treated to help them behave like heart cells.

When the stem cells were introduced into rat heart cells, they began to beat along with the heart cells. The next project will be to inject similar stem cells into a damaged rat heart and see if they repair the heart. If that is successful, the researchers plan to work on larger animals and finally humans.

The hope is that a heart patient's stem cells, taken from their own fatty tissue, could heal their heart. This would be a major step forward. It would eliminate the wait for donor stem cells, and the risk of the body rejecting artificial regenerating substances.

Liposuction is one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures. Since the time it was first introduced, it has been refined and improved into several more specialized procedures. At The Centre, P.C. we offer:

• SmartLipo, which uses an extra-small cannula for working on smaller body areas such as beneath the chin, the breasts and the knees
• Ultrasonic Liposuction (UAL), which uses ultrasound to break up the fat cells, minimizing bruising and swelling
• Vaser LipoSelection, a proprietary type of UAL using a grooved probe that targets the fatty tissue precisely
  

To learn more about the types of liposuction and which one might be best for you, please contact our cosmetic surgery office for a personal consultation.