BIOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF CELLULAR-DAMAGE AFTER ADIPOCYTE HARVEST

Free fat transplantation for soft tissue augmentation yields variable results, which may be related to the technique of fat harvest. To comp are the viability of adipocytes harvested by liposuction (sal) or by e xcision (exc), fat harvested by both techniques from seven lipectomy p atients was analyzed by glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) enz yme assay. Leakage of this lipogenic enzyme through the plasma membran e is a potential indicator of fat cell damage. Preliminary experiments showed this assay to be sensitive and specific for adipocyte G3PDH ac tivity. Treatment of fat tissue with collagenase H resulted in complet e release of the component fat cells for analysis with less loss of G3 PDH activity, compared to other collagenase preparations. Each sample was digested and separated into three compartments: mature adipocytes- floating layer (F), acellular supernatant (S), and stromal pellet (P). Samples from each compartment were assayed for G3PDH activity, normal ized to DNA content, and represented as a percentage of the whole (F S + P). Within the subgroups, the fat cell fraction of the liposuctio n samples (F-sal) showed statistically more activity than the excised samples (F-exc) by paired Student's t test (P = 0.004), The supernatan t (representing leaked G3PDH) and pellet fractions of excised samples revealed more G3PDH activity than the same fractions from liposuctione d tissue; the former (S-exc) to a significant degree (P = 0.036). Usin g this assay, the results indicate that liposuction fat harvest does n ot result in increased fat cell damage compared to fat harvested by ex cision. (C) 1997 Academic Press.