I-Corps: Nipple regeneration for breast cancer survivors

University Of Texas At San Antonio, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a process technology that provides patients with a naturally pigmented donor skin scaffold (allograft) for recovery from surgeries, burns, and other procedures that require tissue regeneration. The availability of a natural scaffold helps improve patient physiological outcomes, and the use of similar pigmentation can improve natural integration with the recipient's existing skin, easing their emotional recovery and self-image. There is a growing demand for such engineered allografts in surgeries, including breast reconstruction. The incidence of breast cancer diagnosis has been increasing rapidly in the united states. Furthermore, the last few decades have seen an increasing trend for women to undergo a double mastectomy for preventative measures, even if breast cancer was only detected in one breast. Such procedures require complete reconstruction of both breasts. In 2015, there were 176,308 breast reconstructions and this number is expected to continue rising. This process technology will help meet some of this demand by improving the production of scaffolds, and may lead to new methods by which individuals planning surgeries can have their own tissue processed and reused in their procedures (autograft). This I-Corps project will develop a scaffold for nipple regeneration derived from human nipple areolar complex tissue. Currently, the best option for nipple reconstruction required in breast reconstruction is cutting and suturing the skin on the breast to create a scar mound with a subsequent tattoo for desired pigmentation that recreates the appearance of a nipple. Unfortunately, this method results in nipple flattening due to retraction forces of the underlying tissue and contraction of scar tissue. Instead of just recreating the appearance of a nipple, like current reconstruction methods, our engineering process technology allows the patient to have a scaffold assist in the regeneration of a nipple made from her own cells. Portions of the scaffold processing we are developing have been demonstrated in a laboratory setting. Advantages of this technology include improved cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration when the scaffold is repopulated with cells from the patient. It is highly desirable to maintain native tissue composition when engineering tissue scaffolds for regenerative medicine applications, and recent studies have demonstrated that superior function and complex tissue formation occurred when such scaffolds were derived from site-specific homologous tissues.