It is with great pleasure that we have Dr. Alessandro Gennai as our guest here in the studio today. Dr. Alessandro Gennai is the creator of the Mivel technique and the SEFFI technique, now we will try to understand well what we are talking about but this is something revolutionary that affects our body, our face, and our skin to stay young in a natural way and then in a right way. Thank you, Dr. Gennai, for gracing us with your presence. As a highly acclaimed plastic surgeon, you have achieved extraordinary feats. What truly impresses me about you is your ability to pave the way for groundbreaking advancements in the field of regeneration. Your contributions are nothing short of powerful and influential. and that is why we are going to talk with you today about autologous regenerative therapy. So what is meant by autologous regenerative therapy?
Thank you Antonino for giving me the opportunity to talk to so many people about what autologous and regenerative therapy is, because very few people know that we have within our body everything we need to regenerate, to heal, to do real anti-aging therapy and to heal our tissues. Many perhaps believe that the only treasure trove is in the bone marrow, whereas today it has been seen in the new research that our adipose tissue is very rich in very precious cells, what are called stromal vascular fraction cells.
So the fat,
In our fat we have a small percentage, our fat is not only made of fat cells, but it is made of many other small cells that are instead very precious. These cells are the mesenchymal stem cells, they are growth factors, and they are fibroblasts. We know that they are all cells that contribute to the health of our tissues. So regenerative autologous therapy does what? It just goes and takes these precious cells and uses them in the patient to help them regenerate and improve their tissues. But, How do you take these cells? Here we get into what your method is, what you have developed, that’s how you came up with this idea and what does it consist of?
This idea emerged when, as a plastic surgeon, you are well aware that the concept of lipofilling, which we discussed back in the early 1990s, began to gain recognition. At that time, it was becoming understood that rejuvenating a face involved not only tightening the skin but also restoring volume and tone. It was then discovered that grafting adipose tissue not only augmented the facial features but also…
Lipofilling, for those still unfamiliar with this method, involves transferring fat from one part of the body to another to modestly increase volume and enhance
But it originated to naturally enhance volume. However, it was observed that the tissue quality in these patients significantly improved, leading to the realization that the benefit wasn’t merely from filling; rather, it stemmed from the cellular components within the adipose tissue. Significant advancements and studies followed, ultimately showing that using micro-hole cannulas to harvest adipose tissue could isolate the most potent part, rich in renowned stromal vascular fraction cells, mesenchymal stem cells, growth factors, and exosomes. Today, thanks to these methods, the SEFFI technique, and MicroSEFFI, allow us to extract a small volume of highly concentrated adipose tissue through a simple, minimally invasive outpatient procedure. Utilizing these cells, we perform anti-aging regenerative therapy using the patient’s own tissue, aiming not to bulk up or alter appearance drastically, but to regenerate and provide genuine tissue care for our patient.
Certainly, but this is the path to follow, this is the path to follow, so helping us to stay young is a necessity for us and fortunately we have this need because it helps us to live well and for a long time, to give the best of ourselves. The reason why we do physical activity is to stay in shape with the body, and therefore welcome all those natural methods that help the skin regenerate. With this method, I would say that we are in the right direction. So you were telling me that even a few cc extracted with a small cannula, something a bit larger than a needle for injections, which is painless, and this fat is then crushed, prepared with a particular method and then injected into other areas where needed, right?
The interesting thing about regenerative therapy compared to other systems, we talked earlier about lipofilling, but also about fillers, is that it is not dependent on volume, but on dosage. What does that mean? It means that we need very little tissue, just enough to be sure that the method we use guarantees a high cellular concentration in that small amount of tissue. So consider that today, to perform an anti-aging treatment for a full face, for example, ten to fifteen cc. of adipose tissue is sufficient. So really just a syringe. Exactly. And this is the great strength of regenerative therapy, which does not rely on how much tissue we put in, but on the quality of the tissue we use. And the method we discussed works precisely through these micro cannulas to select small cellular niches which allow us to inject it without needing to manipulate it. Because many studies have shown that all manipulations of the tissue obviously reduce the vitality of the cells. Therefore, we must take utmost care and delicacy in handling this tissue to fully exploit its capabilities. And I would like to say that regenerative therapy today obviously is not only anti-aging, it is not only aesthetic, but it is now applied in so many fields, from trichology to wound care, treatment of pressure sores, diabetic ulcers, but also at the orthopedic level for joint problems and also lately very important studies have been done at the gynecological level, moreover at the genitourinary syndromes and even in the proctological field.
How often should the session be repeated, that is, should it be… from case to case, is there a standard protocol to follow, that is, what is recommended to patients when they approach this therapy and decide to start doing this treatment?
I as a doctor obviously never have too strict protocols, but it always has to be a relationship between the doctor and the patient, a diagnosis and then decide patient by patient how and with what sessions, how often to do these sessions. One important thing though that I would like to say is that you have to explain to our patients that this is a treatment, so an anti-aging treatment like all treatments has to continue because fortunately we continue to age, time passes, so we should not think of regenerative therapy as one shot therapy, that is when one does a treatment like this it is done, no, you have to have the consistency because the effectiveness is in the consistency, as I always say anti-aging is not a destination but it’s a journey, so the person has to be educated to treat himself and in this case treat himself with his own cells, so at least once a year some therapy to rejuvenate and to treat his own tissues, that is what I recommend.
Of course, but in fact that’s the spirit to have, the way to approach to maintain one’s own skin, one’s own body young in a natural way, so it is not the transformation that we mentioned before, so it is not by inserting something inside that makes me swell that can help make me younger, it serves to transform and therefore to create another person, then afterward one looks in the mirror, does not like what they see, does something else and so you see these faces that are deformed, alas, so helping instead the cells to regenerate this is definitely the right path and it is correct and normal that this should have been done in the past, it is not something that is put there and stays forever, on the contrary, we have seen… in the past the troubles of putting something inside a face, permanent fillers, we have really seen untold things that have caused tremendous damage, imagine doing something that then permanently corrects a defect, things that should no longer be there and should no longer exist. How do you see the future of regenerative therapy? Do you see that it is something that has just started and therefore we still have so much ahead of us that can be done or do you think we are already well on our way?
Look Antonino, I am an enthusiast of regenerative therapy, so I see a future still full of many things that can still be done, many protocols, also because I believe that today more than ever regenerative aesthetic medicine should be developed as integrated therapy, thus integrated with proper cosmetics, integrated also with aesthetic medicine treatments that are done today but in a balanced way and that should be paired and combined with autologous regenerative therapy. I believe that the future of aesthetic medicine will focus on the care of tissues by exploiting the potential of our patients’ tissues, the cells of our patients, and then combine aesthetic medicine with cutting-edge methodologies, cosmetology to allow integration but always with the perspective of treating and correcting tissues in a natural way and performing an anti-aging treatment that is balanced and natural for our patients.
Of course, this is also revolutionizing the figure of the surgeon, plastic surgeon, where the surgeon is called upon less and less in special cases where there are deformities or following trauma, significant problems where the scalpel is used, I would say, as the only solution to resolve those issues. But I see that even the figure of the plastic surgeon is adapting to this; you are an example of this, starting your career as a plastic surgeon. and now instead you are a surgeon who regenerates, who doesn’t destroy.
In fact, I like to call it, mine is a minimally invasive regenerative surgery. As you mentioned at the start, I standardized the Mivel technique. The Mivel technique was born, I published it in 2015, and it originated as an endoscopic technique. This is because, for me, surgery, including facial surgery, should not aim just to tighten the skin; we shouldn’t be transforming elderly ladies or gentlemen into taut-faced seniors, because pulling the skin does not rejuvenate, it repositions the tissues. Therefore, endoscopy in this is a wonderful technique but must always be combined with regenerative therapy. Today, I do not perform an endoscopic face lift without integrating regenerative therapy, because it’s all about the harmony between repositioning tissues that naturally may sag due to gravity but must also be regenerated with cells. So, this is the therapy of minimally invasive and regenerative surgery.
Of course, this is the big step forward that we’re taking, you know I as a dermatologist fully support everything you’re doing and I’m very pleased and I’m a firm believer that we have to go more and more and uniquely towards regeneration. Time unfortunately has stopped us, but I would be very pleased to have you in the office again to talk about other important things that you have done, are doing and you are a master here in your field of plastic surgery and especially also to bring us scientific results because I know that everything that you do with the whole group that follows you is done in a strictly scientific way with evidence therefore scientific and this is the correct way to do these things and so I hope to have you again in the studio at Cosmetica and Wellness with us and with our friends who follow us from home.
A great pleasure Antonino and thank you all.
Thank you and see you soon.