Coverage of Skin Defects Without Skin Grafts Using Adipose-Derived Stem Cells

Abstract

A satisfying result is difficult to achieve in the repair of a full-thickness skin defect in the facial area, including the subunits of the nose. A full-thickness skin graft, nasolabial flap, or forehead flap as a major treatment still is used despite its relative potential for secondary contracture, unmatched skin color, hypertrophic scars, and donor-site morbidity. Another option, with good wound-healing power and soft tissue regeneration without skin grafts would be helpful for initiating treatment. Adult stem cells are a useful material in tissue engineering. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), an abundant population of pluripotent cells found in the stroma of adipose tissues, have been shown to differentiate in vitro into various cell lineages. As a robust source of bioactive growth factors, ADSCs contribute to recovery from ischemic damage, and they can promote the wound-healing process as well as soft tissue regeneration. The authors have experienced several cases of facial skin defect repair using ADSCs without skin grafts. In these cases, they observed rapid coverage of the wound with the patient's own regenerated tissue. During the treatment period, ADSC treatment showed an excellent wound-healing process in terms of quantity and quality.

Adipose-Derived Stem Cells, their Secretome, and Wound Healing

“…In human studies, a phase 1 trial involving ASCs for the treatment of patients with critical limb ischemia showed ulcer improvement and an increase in transcutaneous oxygen [12]. In 2013, ASCs were used for skin defects without skin grafts, and observation showed rapid coverage of wounds with the patient's own regenerated tissue [13]. Furthermore, Reckhenrich et al [14] did a study on the use of an innovative surgical suture filled with ASCs.…”

The Use of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells (ADSCs) and Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) in Skin Scar Treatment—A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies

“…Eventually, full texts of 54 articles were assessed for eligibility. We excluded 36 studies due to: use of normal lipofilling [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] (nine), use in other medical conditions [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] (seven), insufficient outcome data [32,33] (three), use of an artificial material for SVF delivery [34,35] (two), inappropriate design [36][37][38] (three), non-English language [39][40][41] (three), ongoing clinical trial [42,43] (two), and use of predifferentiated cells [44] (one). In four cases [45][46][47][48] full texts were unavailable and in two [49,50] only conference abstracts were accessible.…”

Adipose‐derived stem cells for wound healing

“…In a study by Gir, Oni, Brown, Mojallal, and Rohrich (2012) 174 published cases of ASC application in clinical settings were analysed, in which no adverse effects were observed. In addition, there are also several clinical studies reporting the acceptable safety and efficacy of application of ASCs in improvement of wound healing (Jeong, 2010;Jo et al, 2013;Karaaltin & Baghaki, 2012;Nambu et al, 2009;Sung et al, 2012). One of the widely used applications of ASCs for wound healing is to improve healing of radiation-caused wounds.…”