Is Stored Fat Safe to Use for Fat Transfer?

 

Fat can be frozen and re-injected with good results.  The method of cryopreservation of fat is very important.  A standard compact or household freezer stores fat at -20 degrees C which is not ideal for storage of fat.  For long-term storage of fat the ideal temperature is -75 to –80 degrees C.

There have been some interesting reports in the plastic surgery literature comparing the biologic activity of frozen/stored fat compared to freshly harvested fat. Based on these studies, fresh fat appears to be more biologically active.
However, clinically, frozen fat appears to perform almost as well as freshly harvested fat in the setting of facial fat grafting. In fact, its important to freeze some fat for later use because touch up injections are frequently needed.

Thanks for your question -
There have been several studies examining using cryo-preserved fat for tissue augmentation. It does seem that fat can be stored for a period of time and still be viable (though not as well as fresh fat).
Fat that has been cryopreserved has an even lower survivability.
Most surgeons who are performing autologous fat transfer are using the tissue immediately upon harvest for the most consistent results.
I hope this helps.