The Effect of Different Diameter of Fat Converters on Adipose Tissue and Its Cellular Components: Selection for Preparation of Nanofat.

BACKGROUND Nanofat is an autologous product that is prepared mechanically from harvested fat. In nanofat grafting, converters are used for mechanical emulsification to facilitate fat injection. To date, the study of different converters has received scant attention whether these affect the characteristics of nanofat, so as the practical applications and indications. OBJECTIVES This study set out to investigate the influence of different internal diameter of converters on biological functionality of nanofat during shuffling. METHODS Three-dimensional finite element method was used to simulate the process of mechanical emulsification of fat，and also for researching the stress with five different converters (3.76mm、 2.00mm、 1.20mm 、1.00mm 、0.80mm). Assessment of morphology of emulsified fat was conducted. Isolated stromal vascular fraction was analyzed for cellular components, number and viability through flowcytometry and Live/ Dead staining. Adipocytic and angiogenic differentiation assay allowed assessment of differentiation capacity of stromal vascular fraction. RESULTS The smaller the aperture of the converter, the greater the mechanical force on adipose tissue during mechanical emulsification, showing the different macroscopic and microscopic structure of the emulsified fat. No difference in viability, ration of endothelial progenitor cells and other cells was found. Angiogenic and adipogenic differentiation capacity of the stromal vascular fraction did show a significant change in five different converters. CONCLUSIONS The mechanical emulsification from different aperture of converters does exert different effects of adipose tissue structure, cell content and multipotency differentiation while not its viability. Converters with different apertures can be selected according to clinical needs.