http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/04/stem.cells.liposuction.fat/index.html

This article talks about how fat cells can be used as iPS cells, or pluripotent cells, which are cells that have the ability to become nearly any cell in the human body. The main use of these pluripotent cells is that they can be "coerced" into becoming the type of tissue or cell that the bioengineers want them to be. In the past, stem cells have been the rare known sources of iPS cells, yet have continually come up as controversial because embryos serve as the main source of these stem cells. Embryos are destroyed in the process, posing a moral problem for several people, especially former President George Bush. The reason fat cells can prove to be a great supply of pluripotent cells is that not only do they refrain from destroying embryos, but they are also overly abundant throughout America, unfortunately. This discovery can allow scientists and engineers to cure several diseases that result from deficiency or problems with cells in the patient's body, a more than greatly important one.

Ryan Rihani