Stem cells and adipose tissue engineering

A large proportion of the plastic and reconstructive surgical procedures performed each year are to repair soft tissue defects that result from traumatic injury, tumor resection, and congenital defects. These defects typically result from the loss of a large volume of adipose tissue. To date, no ideal filler material which is successful in all cases has been developed. Additionally, the success of using autologous fat tissue grafts to repair soft tissue defects has been limited. Researchers are thus investigating strategies to engineer volumes of adipose tissue that may be used in these cases. A necessary component for engineering a viable tissue construct is an appropriate cell source. Attempts to engineer adipose tissue have involved the use of preadipocytes and adipocytes as the base cell source. Increased interest surrounding the research and development of stem cells as a source of cells for tissue engineering has, however, led to a new path of investigation for developing adipose tissue-engineering strategies. This manuscript serves as a review of the current state of adipose tissue-engineering methods and describes the shift toward tissue-engineering strategies using stem cells.