RESUMO
BACKGROUND: This clinical and experimental study compared adipose tissue transplant behavior after two different techniques of purifying: centrifugation at 3400 rpm for 3 min and serum lavage without centrifugation. METHODS: Clinical evaluation was performed under standardized conditions for lipofilling on a series of 51 female patients, intentionally selected to have similar characteristics and assigned to two groups based on the method of processing. Experimentally, a culture system in diffusion chambers with vitaline membranes was designed to mimic the behavior and to study the morphology of the adipose tissue used for autografting. Survival, structure, and proliferation of the adipose cells in vitro were examined by classical histologic H&E staining and immunohistochemistry for leptin and cyclin D1. RESULTS: The main differences encountered experimentally were the presence of a greater amount of preadipocytes in the noncentrifuged adipose tissue cultures and more distinctly expressed cell proliferation. The postoperative clinical results favored of the serum lavage purifying technique. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that with transplantation of noncentrifuged adipose tissue more active preadipocytes are applied which could possibly lead to better potential chances of survival and even de novo development of fat.