SILICONE breast implants could be replaced within a decade by natural tissue grown from a patient’s own cells, after groundbreaking research in the United States.

A new technique for growing fat tissue from adult stem cells promises to transform plastic surgery by allowing surgeons to create natural implants that are safer and more realistic in feel and appearance.

Instead of performing breast reconstruction or enhancement with bags of silicone or saline solution, surgeons would extract stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow, or possibly from fat. These would then be grown into fat over a scaffold, to create a biological implant of the desired size and shape made up of living cells of the same genetic make-up as the patient.

There would no longer be a risk of rupture or leakage, and the operation would form less scar tissue, which can leave patients with hard and painful breasts. Natural implants grown in this way would also last longer: saline or silicone versions generally have to be replaced after 15 years, and often lose their shape. They can also interfere with diagnostic techniques, such as mammography, used to detect cancer.

The same technique could also be used in other cosmetic procedures, particularly the re- construction of facial tissue, ac- cording to Jeremy Mao, of the University of Illinois in Chicago, who is leading the research. His team should be ready to begin patient trials within ten years, he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington yesterday.

The possibilities have emerged from a study in which Dr Mao took human master cells found in bone marrow known as mesenchymal stem cells, and seeded them on to a biological frame. This scaffold, made from a substance called hydrogel, mimics the environment in which fat forms in the body, and moulded the cells into a small breast-like shape.

The implants were then placed under the skin of laboratory mice with defective immune systems, where they grew into small parcels of fat-generating cells that still retained their size and shape after four weeks.

Dr Mao, whose work is published in the journal Tissue Engineering, said it could have huge implications for patients: “What we foresee is that, say Jennifer Smith is unfortunate enough to have breast cancer surgery, and needs breast reconstruction, you can take adipose stem cells from her and do the same procedure.”

The technique could be used for elective cosmetic surgery, to enhance breasts, he said. “Much of how fast this will progress is a matter of regulatory issues that are hard to predict. But the technology should be mature within a decade.

“There are several disadvantages of current procedures. They can rupture or leak, and they can block breast cancer detection in the future. The technique is also applicable for other soft tissue facial tissue such as the lips,” he said.

As mesenchymal stem cells are also thought to exist in fat tissue, it may be possible to take fat anywhere on the body to extract stem cells that are then grown into a breast implant.

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