{"doi":"10.1002/sctm.19-0195","title":"CD34+CD146+ adipose-derived stromal cells enhance engraftment of transplanted fat","abstract":"Fat grafting is a surgical technique able to reconstruct and regenerate soft tissue. The adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) within the stromal vascular fraction are believed to drive these beneficial effects. ASCs are increasingly recognized to be a heterogeneous group, comprised of multiple stem and progenitor subpopulations with distinct functions. We hypothesized the existence of an ASC subpopulation with enhanced angiogenic potential. Human ASCs that were CD34+CD146+, CD34+CD146-, or CD34+ unfractionated (UF) were isolated by flow cytometry for comparison of expression of proangiogenic factors and endothelial tube-forming potential. Next, lipoaspirate was enriched with either CD34+CD146+, CD34+CD146-, CD34+ UF ASCs, or was not enriched, and grafted beneath the scalp skin of immunodeficient CD-1 Nude mice (10 000 cells/200 μL/graft). Fat retention was monitored radiographically more than 8 weeks and fat grafts were harvested for histological assessment of quality and vascularization. The CD34+CD146+ subpopulation comprised ~30% of ASCs, and exhibited increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and angiopoietin-1 compared to CD34+CD146- and CD34+ UF ASCs, and increased expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 compared to CD34+CD146- ASCs. The CD34+CD146+ subpopulation exhibited enhanced induction of tube-formation compared to CD34+CD146- ASCs. Upon transplantation, fat enriched CD34+CD146+ ASCs underwent less resorption and had improved histologic quality and vascularization. We have identified a subpopulation of CD34+ ASCs with enhanced angiogenic effects in vitro and in vivo, likely mediated by increased expression of potent proangiogenic factors. These findings suggest that enriching lipoaspirate with CD34+CD146+ ASCs may enhance fat graft vascularization and retention in the clinical setting.","journal":"Stem Cells Translational Medicine","year":2020,"id":97165,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":33,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9525,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":337466,"name":"Ronak A. Patel","orcid":"0000-0002-8483-5587","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":119215,"name":"Charles P. Blackshear","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":480906,"name":"Stephanie Vistnes","orcid":"0000-0001-7691-8633","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337465,"name":"Nestor M. Diaz Deleon","orcid":"0000-0003-3195-845X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":296610,"name":"Sandeep Adem","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294634,"name":"Abra H. Shen","orcid":"0000-0002-6110-0510","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337874,"name":"Jan Sokol","orcid":"0000-0002-0764-8737","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337469,"name":"Arash Momeni","orcid":"0000-0002-6452-751X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337468,"name":"Dung Nguyen","orcid":"0000-0002-9494-7523","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":61819,"name":"Michael T. Longaker","orcid":"0000-0003-1430-8914","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":231541,"name":"Derrick C. Wan","orcid":"0000-0003-4666-1683","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294632,"name":"Mimi R. Borrelli","orcid":"0000-0001-7359-5074","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":48,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:35:34.520494Z","pmid":"32543083","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}