Surface Technology Advances Safer Breast Implants

Biomimetic textured surfaces for silicone breast implants could reduce complications and host rejection, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) successfully copied the hierarchical microscale- and nanoscale-topographical features of acellular dermal matrix (ADM). They then reproduced them in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using an innovative maskless three dimensional (3D) grayscale lithography fabrication process. The PDMS silicone surfaces demonstrated the same hierarchical micro- and nano-topographical features as ADM, thus promoting favorable in vitro foreign body responses.

To test the surfaces, human breast derived fibroblasts were cultured on the PDMS surfaces and compared to commercially available smooth and textured silicone implant surfaces, for up to one week. The researchers found that the PDMS surfaces promoted cell adhesion, proliferation, survival, and increased focal contact formation and spread fibroblast morphology, when compared to current available implant surfaces. The PDMS surfaces also significantly attenuated the acute in vitro foreign body reaction to silicone. The study was published on February 21, 2015, in Biomaterials.

“The surfaces of breast implants in use today have relatively large features on their surface, which have no discernible correlation with biological features required for cells to interact with. Compared to the size of the cells, these bumps on existing implants are so large that they're effectively a smooth cliff face compared to the dimensions required for the cell to interact with,” said lead author Ardeshir Bayat, PhD. “Our approach was to create a novel surface which mimics the basal layer of the skin, which the body's cells are more likely to recognize and interact with favorably.”

Current commercially available silicone mammary surfaces suffer from significant limitation due to the formation of a constrictive fibrotic capsule post-implantation, known as capsular contracture, which results in firmness, deformity and pain in addition to device failure. Capsular contracture formation remains the most common complication associated with silicone mammary implants, with rates ranging between 14.8 and 20.5%.

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