Who knew body fat held such hidden treasures? Scientists have found some serious loot in that bemoaned organ, including a vigorous population of flexible stem cells that can be coaxed into acting as new cartilage or tendons for damaged joints. Fat's gems may also find uses in building new bone and repairing hearts, Susan Gaidos reports on Page 22. One day such research might enable people to avoid hip replacement surgery, instead getting an injection of manipulated stem cells harvested from their own belly blubber — a pretty good deal. Of course, the work is still early, and few of the techniques have been tried in people yet. But the approach has great potential: There are some 200 million stem cells in a pound of fat, many more than in bone marrow. From a seientiflc perspective, fat is intriguing as well. Too much can obviously harm the body's systems, but it clearly has an important role, carrying its own supply of stem cells, immune cells and blood vessels. Gaidos paints a picture of a dynamic, although still poorly understood, organ that may have yet-undiscovered functions in keeping the body going.
展开▼
