This gooey paste contains modified human skin cells and could restore breast volume by filling in spaces left after tumor removal. Credit: Adapted from ACS Applied Bio Materials 2025, DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.5c01538
Researchers in Korea have developed a prototype injectable paste derived from human skin cells that could help restore breast volume after tumor removal, with less scarring and shorter healing time than current options. Although this technique preserves the shape of the breast for the patient, it leaves a scar where the tissue was donated.
Removing part or all of the breast during breast cancer treatment is a potential outcome for some people. Reconstructive surgical procedures often involve prosthetic implants or transplanted tissue from elsewhere in the body. An alternative strategy involves acellular dermal matrix (ADM)—skin that has been processed to remove the outermost layer. This leaves a material with important cellular components for healing, including collagen, elastin and growth factors. Currently, ADM is available primarily in sheet form for tendon repair or plastic surgery, but researchers wanted to create an injectable form of ADM that would be suitable for space-filling reconstructive breast surgery.
As described in ACS Applied Bio Materials, the team took a sample of skin donated by a living female participant and processed it through a series of steps including decellularizing, freezing and pulverizing to form small ADM particles. Then they added water to the particles to form a thick paste. The team injected small amounts of this paste into rats to test its biocompatibility and compared it with two commercially available ADM products. After a six-month period, the rats presented no adverse health effects. In fact, the animals treated with the new ADM paste had thinner layers of tissue form around the injected material than the rats treated with the commercially available product.
Safety trials and more complex tests are necessary before this material could be considered for clinical use; but, this work highlights the potential of the new ADM implant to improve reconstruction surgery.
Data from the American Chemical Society