Health

Stem Cells From Fat Cells

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 2002 / 8:41 AM EST / CBS

A lot of Americans spend a lot of time and money trying to get rid of fat. But now medical research may have turned up a new and potentially life-saving use for all that excess poundage. CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales is on the HealthWatch tonight with more.

Researchers in California say they have found what could be an unlimited source of life-giving stem cells--the spare tires more and more Americans are carrying and more and more are having removed by liposuction.

"Part of the motivation for this was--we had this fat tissue that we get from cosmetic surgery patients and we just throw it away," says Dr. Marc Hedrick.

Stem cells are those cells that haven't been "switched on" yet and have the potential to become almost any kind of tissue. Hedrick found that human fat was full of them.

"These cells already have the genetic information to become fat cells or bone cells or muscle cells or cartilage cells," says Hedrick.

The black areas you see are stem cells that have been converted into bone tissue. Because there's almost no fear of rejection, it's hoped one day a patient's own fat could be used to repair their tissue and organs.

Fat is not the only potential source of adult stem cells. Dr. Ira Black of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School took stem cells from bone marrow and turned them into nerve cells--a possible therapy for spinal injuries and neurological diseases like Alzheimer's.

"The ultimate goal is to determine if these cells will be useful to replace damaged and dying cells in these diseases and hasten recovery of function," says Black.

Encouraging as the latest results with adult stem cells are, some researchers say they believe they will never match the healing potential of the other, controversial, source of stem cells--fetal tissue.

"Adult stem cells will not likely do everything. The hope is that they will do some things," says Dr. Robert Goldstein of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

But with fetal tissue drawing fire--and with an estimated 13,000 liposuctions done every week in this country--the fat that Americans love to complain about may be a stem-cell researcher's best hope.