Cell Bank May Save Time, Money for Fat Transplant Patients

Natural foods and lifestyles have become especially popular in the last several years, and the field of cosmetic surgery is not immune to the desires of many women to avoid implants or other synthetic products. Recent advances in the use of autologous fat grafting, which involves moving fat from one part of the body to another, have opened up new possibilities for all-natural beauty.

A new company in Dallas, Texas has recently capitalized on this trend by establishing the BioLife Cell Bank, which can store fat that has been extracted during the course of liposuction. For a fee, the fat can be stored for future cosmetic use, and the company suggests that the stored cells may one day be useful for medical and genetic research.

Fat that has been extracted from a patient’s body can be used to fill out volume in flat, recessed, or sagging parts of the body. Cosmetic applications include:

• filling wrinkles/folds
• correcting sagging earlobes
• lip augmentation
• filling out scars and depressions
• breast augmentation
• buttocks augmentation

Transplanted fat that has been used to fill out the face, scars, and depressions can last longer than facial fillers, which need to be reapplied about every 6 months for lasting results.

The BioLife Cell Bank will offer patients the opportunity to have their fat retained for future use and save the trouble of repeated liposuctions. In the video above, Tina LeBoeuf, a mother of three, is having fat taken from her lower body, only some of which will be used to reconstruct the breast that she lost to cancer. The rest of the fat will be shipped to Texas, where it will be held until it is needed again.

Many procedures using fat that has been stored would require only injections in an office setting, while liposuction always involves some time in an operating room. The service offers significant savings, in terms of time and the cost of liposuction, for those patients who wish to have future procedures with transplanted fat.

In the long run, the stored fat may also have important applications far beyond the field of cosmetic surgery. Fatty tissue contains a high concentration of stem cells, which have been shown to possess various unique medical applications.