For a study published in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine (January 2021), Christopher B. Zachary MBBS, FRCP, et al, sought to assess adipose tissue response to two body contouring technologies: cryolipolysis and electromagnetic muscle stimulation (EMMS). The authors noted that, while a previous pre‐clinical porcine study suggested that fat cell apoptosis occurs following EMMS treatment, the effect of the treatment on fat tissue is not established. A total of 11 abdominoplasty patients were enrolled in the study prior to their surgeries. Nine subjects underwent a single EMMS treatment delivered at 100% intensity for 30 minutes; six were treated with the Emsculpt (BTL Industries) and three with CoolTone (ZELTIQ Aesthetics). The remaining two subjects were treated with cryolipolysis (CoolSculpting; ZELTIQ Aesthetics).
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The investigators harvested superficial and deep subcutaneous adipose tissue post‐abdominoplasty and evaluated the presence or absence of an inflammatory response using standard hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining.
H&E histological analysis at 3, 10, 11 and 17 days post‐treatment showed no inflammatory response in either the superficial or deep subcutaneous adipose tissue in the EMMS‐treated samples. For the cryolipolysis‐treated adipose tissue, however, the H&E staining revealed a marked inflammatory response with an influx of neutrophils, lymphocytes and macrophages. In addition, loss of perilipin staining provided clear visual evidence of irreversible fat cell injury in the cryolipolysis‐treated adipose tissue. In contrast, the EMMS‐treated samples showed persistence of perilipin staining of adipose tissue indicating that all fat cells were viable.
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