Regenerative Medicine: Clinical Trial To Begin with Women in Australia Using Stem Cells To ReGrow Breasts – Has Been Successful with Pigs

Yesterday we had the male rabbits and the stem cell created penis that was a success and today this story is for the women. This is actually a very good trial from what I read as women may now have an alternative solution for women needing reconstruction with growing stem cells.

If the trial is successful after a 3 year period, it would certainly stand to change breast reconstruction processes and surgery for sure. The article states this is not to be used for enhancement, but rather reconstruction only and they estimated it could be around 10 years before the enhancement opportunities would surface, but not totally out of the question. GE has invested in a somewhat similar process here, but if I am reading correctly the Cytori process is recycling stem cells and putting them back, where as this procedure is actually allowing stem cells to grow.

GE Healthcare to Commercialize Cytori Therapeutics Stem Cell Technology – Regenerative Medicine

I have done a couple interviews with Cook Medical on the blog relative to regenerative medicine and the same scaffolding process it appears is used in order to give the cells a place to grow. You can do a search on the blog and find the interviews and additional information on their technologies. If this process is a success, there might be a few less dollars available for the plastic surgeons in time.

The world-first technique has already been proved in pigs, which grew new breasts in just six weeks and gosh I hope the trials work as well for women too. The first 5 women to start the trial process is set to begin at any time. BD

SCIENTISTS are poised to begin revolutionary surgery to help cancer victims regrow their breasts.
The world-first trial could also change the cosmetic surgery industry by allowing women to grow bigger natural breasts.
The experimental stem cell breast-growing technique - called Neopec - could replace breast reconstructions and implants within years, the Herald Sun reports.
The trial offers hope to more than 5000 Australian women who lose their breasts to cancer each year.

Chief operating officer Dr Phillip Marzella said the process could take longer in women because, unlike animals, humans stop growing at adolescence.
But his team has already developed a dissolvable gel called Myogel to stimulates fat growth when placed in the chamber to speed up breast growth. The Bernard O'Brien Institute has previously made headlines by growing working heart tissue.

The process relies on surgeons implanting a biodegradable synthetic breast-shaped chamber beneath the skin on a woman's chest to act as a scaffold for the new breast to grow in.
They then redirect a blood vessel from the woman's underarm through the chamber to a 5ml piece of the patient's own fat, which spontaneously grows to fill a fist-sized space and form a new breast over the next four to six months.
The fat tissue stops growing when it reaches the chamber to ensure the desired shape and size, while the chamber degrades after the breast is formed allowing for a simple operation.