Abstract
Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is a safe and minimally invasive procedure to correct soft tissue defects. The benefit of AFG is attributed to adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) in fat tissue graft. This technique is useful also in patients undergoing reconstructive surgery following quadrantectomy for breast cancer. However, these patients are frequently treated with tamoxifen. We evaluated the ex vivo effects of tamoxifen on ASCs to understand if cellular functions of ASCs are affected. We selected 24 female patients; 10 of which were breast cancer patients treated with quadrantectomy and tamoxifen. As control group, we selected 14 healthy female subjects (9 premenopausal and 5 menopausal). We found that tamoxifen has no effect on cellular proliferation, VEGF secretion or apoptosis of ASCs. The gene expression assessment demonstrated no impairment in differentiation capacity of ASCs. Our results showed that tamoxifen has no effect on cellular functions of ASCs for the first time in an ex vivo single-center study.
Highlights
Autologous fat grafting (AFG), called fat transplantation or lipofilling, is a safe and minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct soft tissue defects in reconstructive surgery (Pearl et al, 2012)
To investigate the effect of tamoxifen on apoptosis of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), cells from pre, menopausal and tamoxifen treated patients were plated for 48 h and apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry
It aims to provide a further understanding of the impact of endocrine therapy adjuvant to surgical approaches in breast cancer patients, and of selective estrogen receptor modulators such as tamoxifen, on adipose-derived stem cells present in autologous fat grafts used for breast reconstruction
Summary
Autologous fat grafting (AFG), called fat transplantation or lipofilling, is a safe and minimally invasive surgical procedure to correct soft tissue defects in reconstructive surgery (Pearl et al, 2012). AFG can be applied first and foremost in breast reconstruction following breast conserving surgery (BCS) of breast cancer patients, providing a remarkable solution to common sequelae of BCS such as post-surgical local deformities and pain syndromes (Caviggioli et al, 2011, 2016; Maione et al, 2014). It can be used as an alternative therapy in radiotherapy-induced dystrophic tissues (Rigotti et al, 2007), chronic ulcers, scar tissues (Klinger et al, 2015), and degenerative diseases such as systemic sclerosis (Del Papa et al, 2015)
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