Ex Vivo Fat Graft Preservation: Effects and Implications of Cryopreservation

There are a variety of recommended methods for harvesting, treating, and utilizing autologous fat grafts. Previous work with the MTT assay illustrated that various preimplantation handling techniques had minimal effect on the viability of fat samples. This assay was used to test the viability of harvested fat samples after being stored for up to 8 days in a variety of conditions. Surprisingly, freezing the fat before assaying also had no measurable detrimental effect, which led us to study this phenomenon in greater detail. The results demonstrated that fat stored at subzero temperatures showed remarkable maintenance of their mitochondrial metabolic activity as compared with fat stored in a 32°C incubator. These data suggest exciting possibilities for storage and banking of human adipose tissue, which would reduce patient cost, discomfort, and time associated with multiple grafting procedures.