skilled in the art briefly the asc can be obtained by conventional means from any suitable source of connective tissue from any suitable animal as discussed above typically human adipose cells are obtained from living donors using well recognized protocols such as surgical or suction lipectomy indeed as liposuction procedures are so common liposuction effluent is a particularly preferred source from which the asc can be derived thus in a particular embodiment the asc are from the stromal fraction of human adipose tissue obtained by liposuction the tissue is preferably washed before being processed to separate the asc from the remainder of the material in one commonly used protocol the sample of tissue is washed with physiologically compatible saline solution e g phosphate buffered saline pbs and then vigorously agitated and left to settle a step that removes loose matter e g damaged tissue blood erythrocytes etc from the tissue thus the washing and settling steps are generally repeated until the supernatant is relatively clear of debris the remaining cells generally will be present in clumps of various sizes and the protocol proceeds using steps gauged to degrade the gross structure while minimizing damage to the cells themselves one method of achieving this end is to treat the washed lumps of cells with an enzyme that weakens or destroys bonds between cells e g collagenase dispase trypsin etc the amount and duration of such enzymatic treatment will vary depending on the conditions employed but the use of such enzymes is generally known in.