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. 2021 Jan 25;8(2):19.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci8020019.

Comparison of Fat Harvested from Flank and Falciform Regions for Stem Cell Therapy in Dogs

Alexandra Jifcovici  1 , Miguel A Solano  1 , Noel Fitzpatrick  1 , Laurent Findji  1 , Gordon Blunn  2 , Anita Sanghani-Kerai  1
Affiliations

Comparison of Fat Harvested from Flank and Falciform Regions for Stem Cell Therapy in Dogs

Alexandra Jifcovici et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Adipose tissue has recently gained attention as a source of mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSCs) for applications in treating degenerative joint disease in veterinary patients. This study aimed to quantify the stromal vascular fractions (SVFs) and colony forming units (CFU) of AdMSCs from the falciform and flank regions and compare dogs of different ages and weights.

Methods: Fat tissue was harvested from the flank (21 dogs) and falciform regions (17 dogs). The fat tissue was enzymatically digested and the number of nucleated cells in the SVF was counted. The SVF was cultured in vitro and the cell growth was assessed by counting the CFU per gram of fat and the aspect ratio of the cells.

Conclusions: There was no significant difference in the number of nucleated cells in the SVF from the two sites. The CFU/g of fat from falciform was 378.9 ± 293 g and from flank was 486.8 ± 517 g, and this was also insignificant. Neither age nor weight of the patient had an impact on the SVF or CFU/g. No surgical complications were reported from either of the sites. Harvesting fat for stem cell therapy for intra-articular therapy of degenerative joint disease can be an easy and fast process when obtaining the fat either from the flank or the falciform region, and it is not age or weight dependent. The harvest site for clinical canine patients can be left to the surgeon's discretion and comfort.

Keywords: age; canine; degenerative; joint; laboratory; stem cells; treatment; weight.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The colony forming units (CFU)/g of fat in relationship to the age of the patient showing no correlation in either of the anatomical region.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pearson’s correlation demonstrating no significant difference in variability of nucleated cells and CFU/g of cells vs. weight of the patient in the fat harvested from the falciform and flank regions. Weight of the patient vs. CFU/g for the fat harvested from the falciform (p = 0.890) and flank regions (p = 0.333) (A). The weight of the patient vs. nucleated cells in stromal vascular fractions (SVFs) per gram of fat was not significantly different between the two harvest sites: flank (p= 0.874) and falciform (p = 0.966) (B).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The SVFs and CFU per gram of fat from the two anatomical regions. There was no significant difference in the number of nucleated cells (p = 0.602) (A) or CFU/g of fat (p = 0.312) (B) harvested from the falciform or the flank region.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A positive Pearson’s correlation was observed between the harvested weight of the fat and quantified CFU/g for the fat from the flank (r = 0.478, p = 0.021), but this was not reported for the falciform fat. (A) Additionally, no correlation was recorded with the fat weight and nucleated cell number (SVF/g) (B).
Figure 5
Figure 5
The mean aspect ratio (ratio of length/width) of AdMSCs harvested from the flank and falciform region were very similar (p = 0.83). The error bars represent ± 1 standard error. Amplification factor of the image-5x.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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