Liposuction Benefits
Stem Cell Research
Liposuction is intended as a cosmetic plastic surgery procedure to rid people
of their unwanted fat, but researchers have found that there may be a benefit
of keeping the removed fat for stem cell research. Stem cells have the ability
to differentiate into other cells types that are included in the brain, heart,
bones, muscles, and skin. It has been found that removed liposuction fat contains
a high amount of stem cells. The fat tissue is the most clinically relevant source
of adult stem cells, according to Dr. Marc Hedrick. Hedrick co-founded the StemSource
Inc. company that has extracted 100 times the amount of adult stem cells from
the liposuction-removed fat than from bone marrow, the previously primary source
of stem cells.
StemSource is now offering liposuction patients the option of harvesting their liposuction removed fat for possible future use in order to make body replacement parts. While the functional use of the stem cells are far from being ready, there is a potential for great things. The hope for the stem cells extracted from liposuction fat is to be able to grow new cartilage, restore muscles loss, replace damaged or missing bone, and repair damaged heart muscle. By using stem cells that have been collected from your own body it would eliminate tissue rejection.
The cost of harvesting your own fat after a liposuction is not cheap. The cost ranges from $1,500 to $2,000 after the cost of the actual liposuction. While not many liposuction patients have chosen to liquid nitrogen freeze their fat, StemSource expects the numbers to grow.
Health Benefits
A small study on overweight women who had a large amount of fat suctioned during
a liposuction procedure was found to have experienced sustained weight loss in
addition to reduced blood pressure and improved insulin levels two years later.
These liposuction findings were presented at an annual meeting of the American
Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery by the study’s author and associate
professor of plastic surgery at State University of New York.
Concerns have been raised with this type of liposuction because of the risks of the procedure, known as large-volume liposuction. The study was small and included only 14 people that were not compared to a control group, so the future of this type of liposuction will need to be further studied. In 2001, 385,390 liposuctions were performed in the U.S., making liposuction the most popular cosmetic surgery.
Liposuction is intended for isolated pockets of fat that will not respond to diet and exercise. With the large number of overweight and obese people, 61% of the population, the future of liposuction will be further studied to identify if the surgical procedure can improve health. The fourteen overweight women who underwent the liposuction removing large amounts of fat maintained the surgical weight loss in 70% of the women two years later.
In addition, the health of the women improved. Prior to liposuction 8 of the women were at a high risk for diabetes, but after liposuction their insulin returned to a healthy level and remained there two years later. Doctors did agree that the results from the study were impressive, but the safety concerns were still a major concern. Surgeons do not want a new surge of complications that can arise with liposuctions involving large volume of fat removal like the increase that occurred in the mid-1990s. If high volume liposuction is shown to have overall health benefits that outweigh the risks, high volume liposuction will be reserved for those with health risks due to weight problems.
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