Now breast augmentation without silicon. Is therapy for diseased organs next?
Vienna (2008-03-13) — Will cosmetic surgery once again turn out as the source of innovation in therapeutic medicine? Body fat from liposuction might in the near future be used for treatment of diseased or debilitated organs. At the founding symposium of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology in Zürich DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich, Vienna based expert in aesthetic and anti aging medicine and Prof. Albert Donnenberg of the University of Pittsburgh agreed on the future of stem cell medicine: “Stem cells from body fat have already shown huge therapeutic potential in aesthetic medicine just as much as in the treatment of organ-diseases.”
DDr. Heinrich already uses stem cell enriched fatty tissue, harvested in liposuction with microcanulas, for lasting filling in aesthetic surgery – for example in breast augmentation. “These cells have a very special biologic potency, suggesting their use far beyond aesthetic medicine,” says DDr. Heinrich. Prof. Donnenberg, one of the internationally leading researchers in stem cells from body fat, agrees for many reasons:
Adipose tissue derived stem cells extracted from body fat are being produced without the use of embryos and are therefore ethically uncritical. Following liposuction the stem cells can be harvested from a reasonable amount of fat. Therefore it is not necessary to propagate cells artificially as it has to be done with stem cells from skin or bone marrow. Therefore these stem cells need not be processed by adding growth factors in cell culture, but only harvested. From that fact Prof. Donnenberg concludes that their therapeutic use should not bear any increased risk of malignancies.
DDr. Heinrich agrees and stresses the role of the micro-environment in the differentiation of stem cells into adult cells. Obviously the surrounding tissue into which the stem cells migrate, directs into which kind of cells (skin, fat, muscle cells) the stem cells finally differentiate.
DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich was one of the international participants in the symposium. Other well known guests were: Prof. Wolfgang Klietmann of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Prof. David Scadden of Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Prof. Albert Donnenberg of the University of Pittsburgh and Prof. Herbert Zech of the Institute of Reproduction Medicine in Bregenz, Austria.
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