BANK YOUR FAT TO LOOK YOUNGER

Should you store your fat cells? Wendy Schmid investigates the latest cosmetic phenomenon, which may be the final answer to maintaining a youthful face. Also read her article on the lunchtime facelift.
Banking your valuables just makes sense. Your Cartier jewels. Your eggs. And now, it seems, your fat. There's renewed excitement about fat as a cosmetic filler thanks to the skin-rejuvenating stem cells it contains, and some doctors are advising liposuction patients to put their removed fat on ice. The idea: Bank it now so you can inject it into your face later to fill wrinkles, replace lost volume, and potentially regenerate skin. It may sound like weird science, but at BioLife Cell Bank in Dallas (the first fat bank in the U.S.), the number of patients banking their fat has doubled every three months since late last year.

ANTIAGING INSURANCE Doctors aren't yet suggesting fat removal solely for storage, but that may be the advice in the near future. "Removing fat when you're younger — in your 20s, 30s, or 40s — is better because stem cells aren't as potent by your 50s and 60s," says Dallas craniofacial surgeon David Genecov, who cofounded BioLife last year and serves as its medical director. How long can you bank it? "At least 20 years," he states. So if you're 25, you could ostensibly freeze your fat as an antiaging safety net and then inject it when you're 45.

How it works: For a successful stem-cell fat transfer at a future date, the key is to freeze and bank living, undamaged fat cells. "Traditional liposuction damages the fat too much, which is one reason fat injections were unreliable in the past," says Scottsdale, Arizona, cosmetic surgeon Todd Malan. Newer, more advanced liposuction techniques, such as Vaser and Body-Jet, use gentler methods to break the fat into tiny particles before suctioning it out with a low-pressure vacuum. And what if you want to store fat but don't want — or need — full-scale lipo? "We can easily remove 10 to 12 ounces, about the size of a soda can, from your buttocks or thighs, and you'll have enough face filler stored for the rest of your life," says Malan. In an hour-long, virtually pain-free procedure, the area is numbed, then the skin is punctured with an IV-size needle and a microcannula is inserted to suck out the fat. (Cost: from $2,500.)

Once the fat is removed, it's shipped to the bank, assigned a barcode-like identifier, and preserved in liquid-nitrogen vapor. (The cost is comparable to that of egg, umbilical-cord-blood, or sperm storage: $1,700 for the first year and $200 a year afterward.) When you're ready to reinject the stored fat, your doctor notifies the bank and requests the appropriate amount. A portion of your fat and stem cells is separated and recombined with a high-tech centrifuge, placed in syringes, and FedExed back to your doctor for your appointment. (Cost: $2,500.) (The rest remains banked for future use as new signs of aging arise.) Sound pricey? If you reinject your fat in five years, the cost of microlipo, storage, and reinjection is roughly what you'd pay for twice-yearly hyaluronic-acid fillers (like Restylane and Juvéderm) over the same period of time.

FUTURE PERFECT Melissa M., 32, from Scottsdale, sees banking her fat as a bonus after her recent Body-Jet liposuction. "It's fantastic because I don't want to put temporary synthetic fillers in my face as I age. I'd much rather use my own tissue." And with good reason: When injected into the skin layers, fat provides an instant — often permanent — fill, smoothing cheeks, undereye hollows, and nasolabial folds, while stem cells are believed to enhance blood flow and spur collagen growth. The result? Over many weeks, skin becomes thicker and more youthful in tone, texture, and vibrancy. "It's an exciting advance because when the body is dealing with its own tissue, there's less of an inflammatory response and more potential for results that last," says Malan. In other words, you've got much to gain and not much to lose but a few ounces.