Nanofat Treatment

IN LONDON

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DE FELIPE group is an international network of clinics and not all treatments are available at every location. We kindly invite you to contact us to confirm whether the treatment you require is offered at your chosen clinic.

Nanofat.

Hair density and thickness.

What are they ?

STEM CELLS have the ability to divide and repair tissues. They are cells that spend most of their time dormant, and on certain occasions, when they are needed to repair or replace other damaged or injured cells, they subdivide to recover or repair that area of the body. Not all organs have stem cells. Nor can all stem cells give rise to any type of cell, only to those to which they belong. Although there are several groups of cells that can derive from a stem cell, they generally belong to groups or families of related cells. A mesenchymal stem cell present in a patient’s fat can form fibroblasts or adipocytes, but not neurons.

We have stem cell reserves in various locations in our body, but the most accessible and largest reservoir lies within the fat beneath the skin. These stem cells are activated and stimulated under certain circumstances and have been used for the regeneration of infarcted myocardium, liver or kidney injuries, and the regeneration of wounds of all kinds, especially in burns. These stem cells are often called mesenchymal stem cells. Mesenchyme is the area of the body occupied by the dermis of the skin, fat, or connective tissue.

What does the procedure involve?

When stem cell transplants first started, people believed the stem cells would turn into the type of cells found in the tissue where they were placed. For example, if stem cells from fat tissue were put into the heart muscle after a heart attack, the fat stem cells would turn into heart muscle cells. But as more research was done, scientists found this idea was wrong. Stem cells are not able to become any type of cell and do not repair tissue by turning into the same kind of cells as the tissue they’re in.

One discovery was that when stem cells from fat are injected into the scalp, hair becomes thicker and denser. It seems that stem cells from one area of the body can activate hair stem cells, causing them to start their growth cycles and produce stronger, fuller hair.

It is believed that the stem cells used in regenerative therapy release or produce substances that activate the stem cells in hair follicles.
It is known that stem cells from fat tissue cannot turn into just “anything,” and certainly not into tumor cells. This procedure has been done for decades, and the results seem to come from how cells from one part of the body interact with cells from another part.

What is a session like?

 

 

To get nanofat or stem cells, the patient’s own fat is used—usually from the hips in women and the lower back in men—since these areas have a high amount of stem cells. The fat is collected, and then the stem cells are separated from it. These stem cells are then injected into the scalp to help with regeneration and hair loss treatment. The steps in this process are as follows

1. CLEANSING THE TREATMENT AREA

First, the donor area from which the fat will be extracted is cleaned, either the hips or the lumbar region. A size 16 cannula with a small number of fenestrations is used. A small amount of local anesthetic is injected into the entry point.

2. INJECTION

Next, a needle is inserted into the entry point, where the cannula is immediately inserted to irrigate the stem cell donor area. The cannula is introduced beneath the skin in a fan-shaped pattern to evenly distribute the tumescent anesthetic before extracting the necessary fat. Unlike a liposuction procedure, the cannula has a smaller diameter, and the area where the anesthetic is irrigated is also smaller. Tumescent anesthetic is a much more diluted mixture than the anesthetic we would use in normal skin surgery.

3. TISSUE ASPIRATION

After waiting approximately 10 minutes for the tumescent anesthesia to take effect, the tissue is aspirated with the same cannula, always close to the skin’s surface where most of the stem cells are located. Once the aspiration syringe is filled, it is mixed with saline solution for washing and allowed to settle. The amount of fat extracted is approximately 30 or 40 ml, a far cry from the 400 to 2,000 ml that can be extracted in a normal liposuction procedure.

4. STEM CELL EXTRACTION

The aspirated product is passed through a centrifuge to separate the stem cells, which usually settle at the bottom, while the fat and adipocytes remain on the surface. Once extracted, the stem cells are injected with a fine needle into the area of the scalp or skin we wish to regenerate.

5. CELL ACTIVATION

Regeneration takes place over several months. The hair follicle stem cell activation process takes several weeks, and once activated, this process takes several months.

Is it painful?

The pain from the local anesthetic injection or stem cell injection is brief and well tolerated. Fat extraction is performed using tumescent anesthesia. The procedure is generally well tolerated.

Does it require sick leave?

No

How long does a session take?

60 minutes

Recovery time

While some discomfort may occur in the treated areas, it does not require any recovery time in most cases. You can return to your normal routine immediately

How often are sessions necessary?

The frequency of Stem Cell or Nanofat sessions can vary; the most common is once a year.

The best person to help you choose the appropriate frequency for your stem cell or nanofat treatments is your dermatologist.

When will I see results?

The time required to see results varies between 3 and 9 months. Some patients have magnificent results and others respond very poorly.

Unfortunately, we have few parameters that allow us to predict which patients will have good results and which will not. In general, age is a prognostic factor, and it is empirically known that younger patients respond better than older ones.
Interestingly, NANOFAT or STEM CELL TRANSPLANT is usually indicated for older patients since they generally respond less well to other treatments and their hair loss is usually more advanced. Perhaps the procedure should be indicated for less severe hair loss and for younger people, but since it is not an easy, cheap, or quick procedure, dermatologists specializing in trichology reserve the procedure for older patients with more advanced hair loss

Who is a good candidate?

Any type of alopecia affected patients are a suitable candidate for treatment with regenerative therapy using autologous stem cells (from one’s own body). However, simple, newly developed alopecia does not require this type of regenerative treatment. It is also not indicated for recent-onset alopecia areata, which can be treated with mesotherapy or microinjections of anti-inflammatory drugs, minoxidil, or other hair growth extenders.

Stem cell transplantation is reserved for patients with advanced alopecia, who have not responded well to other treatments, or who are middle-aged or older and wish to enhance the results of other treatments.

Stem cell transplantation can be performed alone or in combination with other treatments, including microinjections and mesotherapy, or oral or topical treatments. In fact, dermatologists specializing in trichology will always recommend a combination of different treatments to achieve the best results.

Contraindications

The procedure should not be performed on people with serious concomitant conditions, such as those undergoing active cancer treatment or those with fever, serious infection, or similar conditions. For complete details on contraindications, consult your physician.

Pre- and/or Post-Treatment Advice

  • It is common to feel some pain in the treated area of the scalp. This pain is self-limiting, meaning it resolves on its own, and does not require treatment unless the patient wishes to alleviate the discomfort and take a painkiller. The donor area is covered with a dressing for 24 hours. Once lifted, a small bandage, a plaster, or steri-strip will be visible, which must be kept dry for three days until it is removed. The patient typically removes this dressing after these 24 hours and three days have elapsed. Although it is not necessary to see your doctor for a follow-up visit during these days, if you have any questions about how to proceed with the treatment during this time, you can write to us, contact us, or, if necessary, come for a follow-up in person.

  • Occasionally, some patients experience some pain or swelling in the scalp treated with stem cell injections, just as they do with microinjections or mesotherapy with other substances. This is a self-limiting reaction that resolves spontaneously, but it can cause concern in some patients. It does not require treatment, but anti-inflammatory medications can be optionally taken for one to three days.

Scientific Evidence

 

There are 487 published scientific studies on the use of stem cells in alopecia..

Stem cells stimulate and revive hair follicle germ cells (Gentile P, Garcovich S. Advances in Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy in Androgenic Alopecia and Hair Loss: Wnt Pathway, Growth Factor, and Mesenchymal Stem Cell Signaling Impact Analysis on Cell Growth and Hair Follicle Development. Cells. 2019 May 16;8(5):466. doi: 10.3390/cells8050466. PMID: 31100937; PMCID: PMC6562814.).

The role of stem cells has been extensively studied (Hu XM, Li ZX, Zhang DY, Yang YC, Fu SA, Zhang ZQ, Yang RH, Xiong K. A systematic summary of survival and death signaling during the life of hair follicle stem cells. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2021 Aug 11;12(1):453. doi: 10.1186/s13287-021-02527-y. PMID: 34380571; PMCID: PMC8359037). It appears that the transfer of stem cells from active tissues such as fat awakens and activates the metabolic pathways of hair stem cells.

The use of stem cells has also been shown to be effective in alopecia areata (Martinez-Lopez A, Montero-Vilchez T, Sierra-Sánchez Á, Molina-Leyva A, Arias-Santiago S. Advanced Medical Therapies in the Management of Non-Scarring Alopecia: Areata and Androgenic Alopecia. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Nov 9;21(21):8390. doi: 10.3390/ijms21218390. PMID: 33182308; PMCID: PMC7664905.).

One of the theories underlying alopecia is that follicular cells enter senescence, and as they age, their proliferation stops. Precisely the transfer of activated stem cells from other tissues can reverse this aging that causes Alopecia (Deng Y, Wang M, He Y, Liu F, Chen L, Xiong X. Cellular Senescence: Ageing and Androgenetic Alopecia. Dermatology. 2023;239(4):533-541. doi: 10.1159/000530681. Epub 2023 Apr 22. PMID: 37088073.).

DE FELIPE group is an international network of clinics and not all treatments are available at every location. We kindly invite you to contact us to confirm whether the treatment you require is offered at your chosen clinic.

Should we remind your hair how to grow back?

The price of the nanofat for the treatment is:

1 Session

£1300

Frequently asked questions

The most frequently asked questions about Nanofat can be found here:

Fat extraction to obtain stem cells is, strictly speaking, surgery. The procedure involves injecting an anesthetic into the extraction site and is invasive. This does not mean that it is as extensive as a regular liposuction. A typical liposuction procedure removes between 400 and 2,000 ml of adipose tissue, while stem cell or Nanofat extraction typically removes between 30 and 40 ml.

Two types of anesthesia are used. A small amount of 2% lidocaine is injected into the cannula insertion site. A mixture of anesthesia and saline solution is injected into the fat and stem cell donor area. This more diluted type of anesthesia is called tumescent anesthesia and is traditionally used in liposuction procedures.

It’s a good idea for the patient to bring a recent blood test to verify that their blood count and coagulation are functioning normally.

Patients return to work the day after the procedure. However, since the procedure is minimally invasive, they can resume their social activities upon leaving the clinic immediately after the stem cell or nanofat extraction and injection process.