Award Winner for Outstanding Research in the PhD Category, 2014 Society for Biomaterials Annual Meeting and Exposition, Denver, Colorado, April 16-19, 2014

Decellularization of tissues offers the ability to produce tissue-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds that recreate many of the biochemical aspects of the tissue of interest. In this study, we describe the in vivo function of decellularized adipose ECM hydrogels for treating subcutaneous adipose deficits. Adipose ECM hydrogels were combined with either adipose-derived adult stem cells or a biocompatible cross-linker, injected subcutaneously into nude mice, and evaluated over the course of 1 month. These ECM hydrogels showed improved integration with the surrounding tissue in vivo compared to a clinical standard soft tissue filler, Juvederm, and stimulated neovascularization. More importantly, these adipose ECM hydrogels facilitated new adipose regeneration within the material at 1 month, a feature not seen with current clinical soft tissue fillers. These results contribute to the growing evidence that ECM-based materials are capable of stimulating subcutaneous adipose regeneration, suggesting that future soft tissue filler materials could incorporate ECM elements in order to restore function to adipose deficits instead of simply filling them with static materials. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 102A: 1641-1651, 2014.