U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Grants Patents for Methods of Making Stem and Regenerative Cell-Enriched Fat Grafts

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently granted a patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,901,672) for a method of enriching a patients own fat with their own adipose derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) to create a cell-enriched fat graft. The patent is broad in that it does not limit the method of obtaining stem and regenerative cells or the way the fat is enriched with the cells. The patent covers both manual and automated methods of making cell enriched fat grafts. For example, the patented method covers the collection of cells that have been collected from the fat tissue by enzymatic digestion or mechanical force and cells concentrated by density, filtration, or centrifugation. Under this patent, the cell-enriched fat graft many be prepared manually or in a device.