Researchers at Stanford University in Palo Alto (California) have reached this conclusion after analyzing hundreds of fat cells that they extracted byliposuctionfour overweight people. “We have identified a great natural source,” says the expert inregenerative medicineand study co-author Michael Longaker, who rated thesucked fatWhat“liquid gold”.
As demonstrated by Longaker and his colleagues in a study published today in the magazinePNAS, the adult fat cells of the abdomen are more “flexible” and are more easily transformed than those of the skin (fibroblasts), used until now, inadult stem cells or induced pluripotentiality cells (iPS). In addition, they are more abundant. “40% of adults in the United States are overweight,” says cardiologist Joseph Wu, a co-author of the study. And remember, even in lean people, it is easy to get fat cells.
Experts trust that the use ofcell reprogramming, the technique used to transform an adult cell into another with properties similar to those of embryonic stem cells, allow in the futurea patient is his own donorif you need to regenerate tissues damaged by diseases, such as a heart attack, or even“make” whole organs.
