Autologous fat transplantation has become an increasingly popular procedure among plastic surgeons for both aesthetic and reconstructive applications. Despite the growing ubiquity with which the procedure is performed, many surgeons remain frustrated by the unpredictable take of grafted fat with recent studies reporting graft survival rates varying anywhere from 15% to 80%. We have been investigating different strategies to improve volume retention by 1) enhancing angiogenesis in the fat grafts, such as incorporating endothelial cells or adenovirus VEGF, or 2) tissue engineering adipose tissue with decellularization process to avoid volume loss caused by adipocyte death.

​

AdE4+ endothelial cells (ECs), are human endothelial cells that have been transduced with the E4ORF1 region of human adenovirus Type 5, resulting in long-term preservation of EC proliferation and angiogenic capability without immortalization. We demonstrated that AdE4+ EC-enriched fat grafts would demonstrate improved volume retention secondary to enhanced angiogenesis.