Safety of injectable autologous human fibroblasts.

Autologous dermal fibroblasts after propagation in cell culture were used for face soft tissue augmentation. Twenty patients aged 37-61 years with facial rhytides and atrophic scars were treated with autologous fibroblasts from cell culture. Significant sustained clinical improvement was observed. Cells of early passages (4, 5, 6) were used for injection. The study showed that cultured fibroblasts were functionally active and produced large quantities of type I collagen. In vitro studies of scar formation potency of injectable fibroblasts showed that these cells possessed normal collagen gel contraction capacity. In vivo experiments showed that cultured fibroblasts exhibited no oncogenic properties and induced no tumors in nude mice.