The nitric oxide system – cure for shortcomings in adipose tissue engineering?

Adipose tissue engineering aims to grow fat tissue for soft tissue reconstruction after tumour resection or trauma. However, insufficient progenitor cell differentiation and poor vascularization compromise the generation of clinically applicable adipose tissue. The desired process of neo-adipogenesis seems to be difficult to mimic, even though it takes place in all of us, inevitably and rapidly, as soon as we start consuming high-caloric diets. It has previously been proposed that inflammation and its key regulator, nitric oxide (NO), may play a relevant part in neo-adipogenesis. We here discuss how a controlled activation of the nitric oxide system on various levels may represent a cure for several current shortcomings in adipose tissue engineering. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.