News » Grow-your-own breast implants on the way

A revolutionary technique using stem-cell research could soon allow women to choose breast enhancements made of living tissue instead of silicone. Scientists have been able to grow human fat cells in the laboratory for the first time. They say the breakthrough means patients could, in effect, grow their own implants. The researchers also claim that, in the longer term, it may be possible to grow replacement organs for transplant surgery. The target patients are cancer sufferers and others who need reconstructive surgery. But the man pioneering the technique, Jeremy Mao, professor of tissue engineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago, acknowledges there could also be a substantial cosmetic market. Doubts persist about silicone or saline implants which, despite technical improvements, can rupture or leak.

About 15,000 women had cosmetic surgery in Britain last year, up from 9916 in 2003, according to the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons. In the United States, about 6.2 million people annually need plastic surgery for medical reasons, mostly following the removal of a tumour. The same number have plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons.

Professor Mao has developed a method of isolating the patient's stem cells, culturing them into a fatty tissue mass, and then building it round a "scaffold" of the correct shape for breasts or lips.

He said he first took adipose stem cells from a human donor and isolated the fat-generating cells. These were mixed with a chemical, hydrogel, "which can be moulded into any given shape or dimension". Hydrogel is a lightweight material licensed for use in medicine. "You mould them into the shape of the other normal breast or the missing portion of breast and, instead of implanting silicone or saline structures, we would use the stem cell-derived adipose implant," Professor Mao said. The living tissue implants would not "wear out". And because they are derived from the patient's own stem cells, there would be no problem of tissue rejection, which can arise with tissue from a donor.

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