Introduction: To obtain long-term survival of autotransplanted fatty tissue, the harvested fat grafts must be viable before implantation. However, the viability of fat grafts harvested by even a well-established technique remains poorly studied and unknown. This study is designed to determine the viability of fat grafts harvested by the Coleman technique using a syringe, cannula, and centrifuge.

Methods: Sixteen adult white females (Ages: 23 to 57 years) were enrolled in this self-controlled, IRB approved study. In Group 1 (N=8), fat grafts were harvested with the Coleman technique by a single surgeon (SRC) from the abdomen of each patient according to his well described and standardized method. In Group 2 (N=8), fat grafts were harvested with the conventional liposuction by a single surgeon (LLQP) and were spun at 50 G for 10 minutes. The resulted middle layer of tissue was collected. All fat graft samples were analyzed within 30 minutes after they were harvested for the following studies: Trypan blue vital staining after collagenase degradation for viable adipocyte counts, glycerol-3-phophatase dehydrogenase (G3PDH) assay as an indicator of adipocyte specific intracellular enzyme activity of fatty tissue for determination of cellular function within harvested fat grafts, and routine histology for morphology of harvested fat grafts. The data obtained from this study was analyzed with a two-tail unpaired Student t-test.

Results: The higher viable adipocyte counts were found in Group 1 compared with Group 2 (4.11 ± 1.11 vs. 2.57 ± 0.56 x 106/ml, Mean ± SD, p<0.004). The level of G3PDH activity was significantly higher in Group 1 compared with Group 2 (0.66 ± 0.09 vs. 0.34 ± 0.13u/ml, p< 0.0001). Histology showed normal structure of fragmented fatty tissues in both groups.

Conclusions: Our results, for the first time, demonstrate that while fat grafts harvested by both methods maintain normal histological structure, the Coleman technique yields a greater number of viable adipocytes and sustains a more optimal level of cellular function within harvested fat grafts and should be considered as a standard and preferred method of choice for fat graft harvesting.