Adipose tissue regeneration in vivo using micronized acellular allogenic dermis as an injectable scaffold

Over the past few years, the clinical use of injectable artificial materials in plastic surgery has increased. In addition, autologous lipoimplantation is being performed for volume replacement of soft tissue for aesthetic purposes. In this study, acellular allogenic dermis was utilized as a scaffold for the culturing of preadipocytes, confirming the possibility of three-dimensional proliferation of progenitor cells, the eventual differentiation of stromal cells in adipose tissue into the adipocytes, and the in vivo implantation of such adipocytes to form fat tissue. Preadipocytes, recently called ASCs (adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells), were cultured in acellular allogenic dermis, successfully attached to the dermal particles in a three-dimensional structure, and proliferated, differentiated, and eventually formed a cluster. For the in vivo implantation, four groups were formed: the first group was cultured within the dermal scaffold for 24 h before implantation (24-h preconditioned group), the second group was induced for differentiation for 10 days before implantation (10-day preconditioned group), the third group was implanted immediately after cell propagation (nonpreconditioned group), and the control group was implanted with only dermal scaffold. In vivo implanted preadipocytes showed great differentiation into adipocytes within the dermal scaffolds. Also, the 10-day preconditioned group showed a greater volume of fat tissue compared to the 24-h preconditioned group. From these results, we confirmed that after a three-dimensional culture in acellular allogenic dermis, implanted preadipocytes formed a greater amount of fat tissue and that this could be a possible effective method for future soft tissue restoration.