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Natural breast implant a first
By CHRIS TINKLER
14dec03

WOMEN who have lost a breast to cancer or simply want a fuller figure will soon be able to grow them naturally, thanks to Melbourne scientists.

The not-so-fake breasts are being developed by the team from Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St Vincent's Hospital and Melbourne University Chemical Engineering Department.
The team has already grown breasts in pigs, rabbits, rats and mice.

Now it is seeking financial backers to help develop a commercial product for women.

Professor Wayne Morrison, from the O'Brien Institute, said yesterday they hoped to find a backer and fine-tune the technology over the next year.

They aim to grow fat tissue in a human by 2005 -- in what would be a world first.

Following further trials, checks and approvals, the breast products will be marketed to hospitals and surgeons.

The product will consist of a special breast-shaped elastic chamber.

Surgeons would connect the chamber to a vessel, providing a link to the body's blood supply.

The chamber, containing a matrix of stimulators, would draw cells in from the body and trigger them to form fat tissue.

Once full, the chamber would dissolve to leave a properly-formed natural breast.

After the chamber was inserted, it would take up to three months for the breast to form, Professor Geoffrey Stevens, head of the team at Melbourne University, said.

"We are putting in a structure that's temporary that enables a body part to grow itself, as a natural living organism," Professor Stevens said.

"These new breasts, or breast parts, will feel the same as normal breasts."

Tens of millions of women worldwide have lost a breast through cancer.

But the products are expected to be snapped up by even more women keen to increase the size of their bust.

"We would manufacture them to be competitive with saline or silicon implants," Professor Stevens said.

"The largest market for them is probably in breast enlargement.

"I imagine people wanting cosmetic surgery would much rather put something like this in them than silicon."

The chambers would come in different sizes, with surgeons able to easily trim them into shape, he said.

Based on the same principle, the scientists would also create products for other fatty body parts, such as cheeks.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,8156059%255E24331,00.html