If someone had said a few years ago that human fat could generate neural tissue, bone marrow and insulin-producing structures, it would have sounded absurd, but it was exactly what just happened in China, scientists from the Yautan University of Shanghai and the Shanghai Institute of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery demonstrated something that until recently seemed unlikely, transforming adult human fat into functional organoids, without isolating stem cells and without any genetic modification.

The approach preserves intact micro fragments of adipose tissue and allows them to reorganize themselves, the original cellular diversity remains, the natural microenvironment is maintained and the result, functional organoids, from the fat bone marrow-like structures capable of sustaining the production of blood cells emerged. In tests with immunodeficient mice, these organoids formed complete vascular niches, allowing human cells to engraft, proliferate and function as they would within the body.

But it didn't stop there, using guided protocols, the researchers created pancreatic islet-like organoids that responded to glucose by secreting insulin. When transplanted into diabetic animals, those tissues restored normal blood sugar levels throughout the experiment and perhaps even more surprising, the same adipose tissue was also induced to form neural tissue. Neuro spheres emerged spontaneously giving rise to neurons and glial cells, expressing typical markers of the human nervous system.

Up to this point we have talked about technology entering the human body, recreating tissues, restoring functions, giving the organism a second chance, but when engineering stops acting only on matter and begins to deal with decision, autonomy and choice, the challenge changes scale because creating functional life from fat is impressive.