Commentary on: The Effect of Lipoaspirates Cryopreservation on Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Abstract

In the study entitled “The Effect of Lipoaspirates Cryo-preservation on Adipose-Derived Stem Cells,” Wang et al1 conducted a thorough investigation to evaluate the potential effect of lipoaspirates (LA) cryopreservation on adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC). The authors have chosen what they believe is a reasonably good cryopreservation protocol for “banking” of LA harvested by standard liposuction techniques. The study appears to be quite well conducted, and the methods are standard and scientifically sound for the study of ADSC. On the basis of the study, the authors concluded that LA cryopreservation had no effect on adipocyte viability. It had a significant impact on ADSC apoptosis but not on ADSC necrosis, proliferation, or differentiation. The cryoprotective agent may provide adequate protection against ADSC apoptosis. In addition, CD34+/CD31– ADSC have a significantly lower rate of apoptosis and necrosis compared with other subpopulations of ADSC, such as CD105+/CD45−.1 I believe that the study is an important contribution to the scientific literature of fat grafting research because of ADSC and their therapeutic potential in the near future. In addition, the study itself represents a continued effort by plastic surgery investigators to explore the possibility of whether cryopreservation of LA could become a clinical reality for subsequent fat grafting procedures and ADSC-directed cell therapy after long-term preservation for our patients in the future. I would agree with the authors that there has been controversy in terms of the effect of LA cryopreservation on ADSC. Some studies show that there are negative effects of LA cryopreservation on ADSC for their proliferation and differentiation.2,3 Other studies show that …