Grow your own facelift

A revolutionary facelift treatment involves taking a few skin cells from the patient and then growing them in a laboratory. When these are injected back into the patient, the effects are more natural than Botox and longerlasting, say the promoters of the new technique. How do they do it, does it really work, what does it cost and what are the drawbacks?

Whoever it was who said beauty comes from within is being proved right in the most literal sense. A new anti-ageing treatment has started a quiet revolution in nip-and-tuck circles.

The technique involves an injection of cells into lines and wrinkles. But these aren't cells made from botulism or taken from cows' backsides. They are taken from the patient's own skin. A biopsy is taken from behind the patient's ear (an area well-protected from sun damage and pollution) and samples of collagen-producing cells called fibroblasts are extracted.

The cells are cultured in a laboratory for around seven weeks - as long as it takes for the cells to have sufficiently multiplied - and they are injected back into the face.

This 'living cell therapy' as Isolagen - the company which has developed and patented the technique calls it - looks set to revolutionise the cosmetic surgery industry. More than 500 have tried the treatment since its launch in Britain last year and already it's being compared to the run away success of Botox.

While Isolagen is insistent that its product should not be referred to as a filler, it must surely be delighted with the comparison. In Britain alone Botox generates around £6.5 million a year. In America the figure is £240 million. Cosmetic surgery companies are desperate to find the next big non-surgical thing and Isolagen could well be it.

No other treatment offers clients the option of effectively growing their own face-lift and so far there have been no side effects. What's more impressive is the effects don't seem to wear off. None of the people who have tried it so far has needed top-up injections.

Large numbers of Isolagen's British fans had been devotees of other popular face-fillers - such as Restylane and NewFill - as well as the face freezer, Botox.

But a small, growing number are people who have never tried any other kind of cosmetic enhancement. They feel safe with a treatment they refer to as 'organic' or 'natural'.

Fibroblasts are healing, binding cells which go to work on the skin when it is damaged or scarred. All they are doing, fans of the treatment argue, is boosting their own fibroblast count to 'heal' their wrinkles.

results of the treatment are not immediate, which will frustrate impatient clients. It can take two months for the effects to show. As the fibroblasts get to work and collagen production is boosted, lines disappear very gradually.

The fibroblasts continue to work in the dermis (the lower level of the skin) which in theory means that no followup injections are needed in the areas treated - one of the downsides of existing wrinkle fillers, which need top-ups every few months.

Robert Sexauer, a vice-president of Isolagen, says: 'We can say the effects are still visible after eight years. But that's because we've been going for only eight years. Next year we'll be saying it's nine years. Who knows how long it could last?'

Indeed, as Sexauer gave me a tour of Isolagen's British headquarters in West London, it was hard to see what any of the downsides of the treatment might be.

Sexauer is evangelical. 'We are using the body to heal itself. It's like refilling an old cushion. You're not actually doing anything to the outer layer of skin, but by making the lower levels work more efficiently, it has an effect.

Once you have had the treatment, your fibroblasts can be cryogenically preserved (i.e. frozen) for future use on emerging lines and wrinkles as you age. The younger your fibroblasts are, the more efficient they will be, according to Isolagen, so it's best to freeze them (at a cost of around £400 a year) rather than taking another biopsy when you are older.

The cost of the treatment - £2,500 to cover the biopsy and the first series of injections - seems to be the main drawback.

Dan Goldberg, a top London plastic surgeon who has treated around 20 patients in the past 10 months, says: 'It is very expensive and that is one of the things that could stop it from really taking off. Then again, for such a long-term, natural-looking treatment, many see it as a bargain.'

if you apply the kind of arithmetic that many of us use to justify buying astronomicallypriced designer clothes, Isolagen starts to sound like a veritable investment. Botox, for example, may cost just £250 a shot, but you're likely to need a booster every few months. Over five years, with top-ups every three months, that could cost £5,000 - double the price of your first, long-lasting course of fibroblasts.

As well as treating lines, many patients have turned to Isolagen for treating acne and scars as well as serious burns. If the results Sexauer showed me on Isolagen's vast database of 'before' and 'after' pictures are anything to go by, the effects on serious scarring are close to miraculous.

Another application to be launched in Britain this year will be on receding gums, which could revolutionise the dental industry.

Britain is the front line for the treatment, with patients travelling from all over the globe to grow their fibroblasts here. In America, where Isolagen was pioneered in the mid-Nineties, the treatment is awaiting Food and Drugs Administration approval.

As with any new treatment, concern has been raised about unknown longterm consequences. But medical experts seem excited rather than concerned.

Dr Mark Lewis, an expert in fibroblasts based at University College, London, says: 'This treatment has been around for nearly a decade with no known negative side-effects, which is very encouraging.'

One concern is that with so many samples kept on ice, is there a risk of having someone else's fibroblasts injected into your crow's feet?

Isolagen says this is simply not possible. Every phial is bar coded the second it arrives at the lab. Small flasks of fibroblasts are sent to surgeons' clinics on the day they are to be injected. Isolagen is not yet popular enough for there to be several treatments at the same clinic on the same day.

But it is not impossible in the future.