Implant Veterans of Toxic Exposure

Study-Adjuvant Effect of Silicone Gel

Home
Action
Alerts
Hayes
Congressional Report
AMT-1
AMT Audit
Fly-In
ASPRS Survey
Bell & Pointer
BI Capsules
BI Chemicals
BI Numbers - Dow
Burson-Marsteller
B-M's Spokesdoctors
Dr. Pierre Blais
Burson - NEW
Cab-O-Sil
CANDO
Capsules
Chemical Adverse
ChemBMS
Children
Chem Soup
Connie Chung
CRS_safety
Dowknew1
Dowknew2
Dowknew3
Dowknew4
Dow Bleed
Dow Disease
Dow Fraud
Dow Migration
Dow Rupture
DC Whines
Dr. Anderson
Explant
Gagged
Gel Reaction
Griffin Bell
Hancock
Harvard-Brigham
HAD
Inflammation
Jenny
Judge Jones Transcript
Kessler
Latissimus
Maryland Informed
McKennon
McGhan-Shells
Poem to Congress
No Evidence
Cole
Norman Cole
Notable People
Scleroderma
SS
Study-Adjuvant
Study-Adjuvant-FDA
Study-Beagle
Study-Dogs
Study NY
Study-Tissue Reaction
Talcott
Testimony
Ultra Sound
Links

MCG000133044/911
Mar 18, 1993              08:59          317-496-8065                         DOW CORNING CORP

This study was funded by the top five breast implant manufacturers. 

 

Study of Adjuvant Effect of Silicone Gel

 

As part of the ongoing research program on silicone gel breast implants, Dow Corning on March 9, 1993 completed a laboratory study designed to test the adjuvancy of silicone gel in laboratory rats. The study replicated one which will be published later in March 1993 by Dr. John Naim of Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY, and Dr. Carol Van Oss and colleagues of the State University of New York, Buffalo.

 

Dow Corning and Dr. Naim’s studies concluded that under specific experimental conditions silicone gel can function as an immune adjuvant in laboratory rats. An adjuvant is a substance that can enhance the immune response to a foreign material (such as a protein). In these two studies the adjuvancy of silicone gel was demonstrated by an increased production of antibodies in laboratory rats when an antigen called ESA (borne serum albumin) was mixed with the gel and administered to the rats.

 

The heightened antibody production caused by silicone gel acting as an adjuvant in these laboratory experiments does not mean that silicone causes immune disease. The experiments also do not determine whether silicone gel could function as an adjuvant in women with silicone gel breast implants. Additional research is required to address those issues, which Dow Corning is committed to pursue. More specifically, some of our additional studies prompted by these findings address the following issues:

 

          The physical form of the gel used in these laboratory rat studies differs markedly from its physical form in a breast implant. Dow Corning currently is conducting additional research using gel which more closely resembles the physical form of gel actually used in implants.

 

         In the laboratory study, silicone gel was mixed with a foreign material known as an antigen. However, silicone gel implants do not have an antigen mixed in with the material. A key question is whether silicone gel can cause an increased production of antibodies in the absence of this added antigen. Dow Corning currently has studies underway to address this question and additional studies are planned.

 

“We have briefed the FDA on these results and will continue to brief them about ongoing research as it is completed,” commented Myron Harrison, M.D., Dow Corning’s Chief Medical Officer. “We believe our first responsibility to the women who have our implants is to continue our research and report the results to the Food and Drug Administration. We will continue state-of-the-art scientific studies so that physicians and the Agency can provide informed advice to patients.”

 

Adjestate:kkw

Lf/do

March 17, t993

Site maintained by Pamela G. Dowd