Stem Cell Research to Grow Bigger Boobs

A recent Japanese study proposes a simpler, softer, more natural-feeling alternative to silicone breast implants: fat-derived stem cells. The cells are extracted from liposuctioned fat, and then injected into the patient to increase breast circumference. San Diego-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics is currently waiting on FDA approval to start clinical trials.

X-Ray of Breast Implants

PopSci reports:

"Experimenting with non-vital organs is safer and subject to a much more limited set of regulations, since the stakes in experimenting on a human heart are much higher than on less-crucial appendages. Additionally, FDA approval isn't required to relocate cells that are removed and returned to the same person in one procedure. And breast augmentation is the most commonly performed plastic surgery in the U.S., earning almost $1 billion in 2009.

Human trials have demonstrated that adipose-derived stem cells can be successful treating a variety of bodily failures, improving aerobic capacity in people with heart disease, increasing blood supply and pumping capacity in heart attack survivors and decreasing incontinence in prostatectomy survivors by 89 percent. In rat studies, the cells improved kidney function…" (Read more).