Development and Evaluation of the Airtight, Minimal-Invasive, and Fast Device Harvesting Adipose Tissue for Autologous Fat Grafting

The present study was undertaken to develop the device that can be used to harvest adipose tissue for fat grafting with an airtight, minimal-invasive, and fast approach. The abdominal liposuction was performed in six women under local tumescent anesthesia. Fat from left abdomen was harvested by the classical 20-ml-syringe technique while fat from right abdomen was harvested by a reformative vacuum-assisted suction device (negative pressure, 25 to 35 kPa). This device includes a 1-L sterile canister, a cannula with 2.5 mm inner diameter, a conventional liposuction machine, and a one-way valve connected between the canister and the liposuction machine. The operative time of harvesting 200-ml fat grafts was recorded and calculated. The collected adipose tissue was used for adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) extraction and culture, glucose transport test (GTT), and bacteriological culture. First, we found that the operative time of harvesting 200-ml adipose tissue using 20-ml-syringe aspiration technique was 71.3 ± 4.3 min compared with 30 ± 3.5 min by the new device ( p < 0.05). The sizes of the fat grafts obtained from both methods were similar. Second, the viability of harvested adipose tissue tested through GTT showed no significant difference between two harvesting methods ( p > 0.05). Additionally, the samples harvested from both methods showed no bacterial growth. The results from the XTT test revealed that there was no significant difference on ADSCs growth between two methods ( p > 0.05). In conclusion, the results support that the innovative device for adipose tissue harvesting is minimal-invasive, fast, and can prevent the fat grafts from contamination.