ABSTRACT
Autologous fat grafting (AFG) is a safe and minimally invasive procedure to correct soft tissue defects. The benefit of AFG is attributed to adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) in fat tissue graft. This technique is useful also in patients undergoing reconstructive surgery following quadrantectomy for breast cancer. However, these patients are frequently treated with tamoxifen. We evaluated the ex vivo effects of tamoxifen on ASCs to understand if cellular functions of ASCs are affected. We selected 24 female patients; 10 of which were breast cancer patients treated with quadrantectomy and tamoxifen. As control group, we selected 14 healthy female subjects (9 premenopausal and 5 menopausal). We found that tamoxifen has no effect on cellular proliferation, VEGF secretion or apoptosis of ASCs. The gene expression assessment demonstrated no impairment in differentiation capacity of ASCs. Our results showed that tamoxifen has no effect on cellular functions of ASCs for the first time in an ex vivo single-center study.
Subject(s)
Breast Implantation/methods , Breast Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Mastectomy , Tissue Expansion/methods , Breast Implantation/instrumentation , Breast Implants , Breast Neoplasms/surgery , Female , Humans , Postoperative Complications/epidemiology , Radiotherapy, Adjuvant , Time Factors , Tissue Expansion/instrumentation , Tissue Expansion Devices , Treatment OutcomeSubject(s)
Breast Implants , Breast Neoplasms/therapy , Mammaplasty/methods , Mastectomy , Radiotherapy, Adjuvant , Tissue Expansion Devices , Female , HumansABSTRACT
Gynecomastia may result in psychological problems because the presence of a "feminized" chest changes the male body contour, altering the masculine ideal of virility. Currently, surgical techniques described for the correction of gynecomastia are for some patients associated with aesthetically unacceptable scars, sometimes less tolerated than the chest deformity itself. The case of a 20-year-old man who underwent the authors' male chest body-contouring technique with minimal visible scars is described.
