Plastic surgery and also cosmetic surgery often face the challenge of treating small or large unsightly scars that result from accidents or surgeries. The body usually does not regenerate injured or lost tissue, but replaces it by connective tissue. Mostly it leaves ugly scars. Since we know that living organisms basically have the ability to rebuild and repair themselves when injured without leaving any scars, it raises the question of whether and how this also could be achievable in humans.
Certain animals are able to achieve even more: For instance, salamanders have the ability to completely regenerate lost limbs or tails – without any scars. Unfortunately, this is not (yet?) possible in humans. During the critical stage in wound healing, the damaged tissue obviously would need to be maintained in a virtually embryonic condition in order to successfully produce complete tissue regeneration without any scar formation.
The question arises, what impact stem cells have in terms of the wound healing process and whether the stem cell therapy could help to prevent the development of unpleasant scars.
Available evidence give reason for optimism: Meanwhile, scars can be almost completely removed by means of stem cell therapy. However, “the old” scars need to be surgically removed at first and subsequently have to be closed again afterwards. If autologous stem cells are injected into the “place of the event” during the wound healing phase, the healing process will be promoted in such a way that a significantly less visible scar is going to develop! Depending on the surgical procedure, there is also the possibility to use the stem cell therapy directly after the initial closure of the wound.
Which stem cells are used for such treatments? The autologous fat particularly contains an especially high number of so-called mesenchymal stem cells. Therefore, it is not surprising that cosmetic surgeons had been the first ones who discovered autologous stem cells as a “waste product” of liposuction surgery. Cosmetic surgery, which contains plastic surgeries such as breast augmentations and facelifts, is a pioneer in the development of stem cell therapies. Apart from cosmetic applications, health issues in a narrow sense can also be eliminated by means of the stem cells extracted from autologous fat.
In fact, treatments of removing unpleasant scars have already been performed in some centers worldwide by autologous stem cells: Stem cells are isolated from some fat that is liposuctioned and are injected into the wound area after a careful examination of the wound. The therapeutic effect: Instead of a wide scar, there will be a significantly improved result: A barely visible scar. Whether this effect is due to the stem cells or the cellular hormones (cytokines) produced by them, remains undecided.
Well, even if we are not yet able to let wounds heal entirely with no scars, we nevertheless have been able to accomplish quite a bit and who knows, maybe in some years we will also have the regenerative capacity to regrow whole limbs.
What is your opinion in terms of the revolutionary possibilities of stem cell therapy?
DDr. Heinrich, MD