ABSTRACT
Cellulite is a localized condition of subcutaneous fat and connective tissues with the typical visual appearance of the orange-peel look of the skin. Cellulite, or more correctly, gynoid lipodystrophy (GLD), affects mostly women and, rarely, men and is considered as a common aesthetic problem for many women. Cellulite appears generally after puberty and worsens with age. There are preferential places of cellulite: buttocks, thighs, upper part of the arms, knees, and more rarely, the lower parts of the legs and the back of the neck. It is interesting to note that these preferential cellulite sites are areas in which the typical pattern of adipose deposition is observed. Although cellulite may be found in areas with excess adipose tissue, obesity is not necessary correlated with the presence of cellulite. It is known that that men and women have a different connective tissue organization at the rst layer of subcutaneous fat. With females, the adipose tissue is contained in chamber-like structures (septae) that favor the expansion of adipose tissue onto the dermis. On the contrary, men have a network of criss-crossing connective tissue architecture, forming smaller spatial units, which allow for subcutaneous fat deposits to expand more laterally and internally but with little herniation into the dermis. Furthermore, men have thicker epidermis and dermis tissue layers in the thighs and buttocks than females.
