Jan 30, 2011 11:35 GMT  ·  By
Fat-derived adult stem cells are bound to garner wide-scale acceptance following studies to assess their effectiveness
   Fat-derived adult stem cells are bound to garner wide-scale acceptance following studies to assess their effectiveness

Around the world, small numbers of surgeons are currently pioneering therapies against a variety of conditions that rely on the use of stem cells. While the method does promise interesting results, others say that more research is needed before this approach is extended into general use.

The basic ideas on which the use of these cells is founded makes perfect sense, and this is not the issue here. Everyone in biotechnology knows that stem cells are the way to future medicine.

What some are debating are the long-term effects of injecting people with adult stem cells (ASC) obtained from their own fatty tissues. This has a variety of advantages and disadvantages, critics say.

Extracting the ASC from fat is really simple. Surgeons perform a liposuction, a procedure during which excess fat is removed from areas of the body, such as the tummy, thighs, buttocks, and so on.

The material is then placed inside a centrifuge, which separates the actual fat from denser cells in the mix. The denser material is then analyzed, and the ASC they contain are removed for further use.

One of the uses being given to these cells right now is in treating hips, knees, and other joints and bones that have been affected by arthritis, sports, and accidents, or simply by old age.

Once inside the body, ASC can determine the type of tissue they were injected in, and proceed to develop into cells pertaining to that tissue. As they do so, they replace sick, damaged or dying cells at those respective locations, the MEDILL news service reports.

Proponents of using ASC say that one of the main reasons why these cells are preferred to, say, stem cells originating in the bone marrow is that the latter take several days to grow, whereas the former can be separated from fat in an hour.

But not everyone agrees with this approach. There are those who say that there are currently insufficient data to support the use of ASC for such applicatios. The critics add that these cells should be used in trials and studies only, and not by private individuals.

“It’s an utter disgrace that without sufficient data and an appropriate safety trial that there is good rationale for doing these (sic!),” explains stem cell investigator and scientist Dr. John Kessler.

“Stem cells have become a very popular thing and people know about them […] but these are people who are trading on the fact that it’s become a very popular concept,” he goes on to say.

The expert holds an appointment as the director of the Neuroscience Institute at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

But surgeons already involved with this procedure say that there is no reason to panic. “Once you’ve got a reasonable grasp as to how well people are responding and you’ve established some reasonable parameters for treatment – then you can perform a study,” surgeon Dr. Mark Berman says.

“Do I want to sit back and wait for a universities to tell me it works or it doesn’t work?” he concludes.