SURFACE DEPENDENT ANTIGENS IDENTIFIED BY HIGH BINDING AVIDITY OF SERUM ANTIBODIES IN A SUBPOPULATION OF PATIENTS WITH BREAST PROSTHESES

There is growing concern in the medical community that silicones, ubiq uitous in health care, may exhibit antigenic, immunogenic, and/or adju vant activity. Sera from women with silicone breast prostheses were as sayed by ELISA for humoral immunoreactivity to a variety of common int erstitial and cellular components. In decreasing order of frequency, s ignificant IgG avidities were found against silicone surfaces treated with fibronectin-laminin, phospholipids, no treatment, and fibrinogen when compared with sera obtained from healthy, age-matched, nonimplant ed women and a population of nonimplanted women with previously diagno sed autoimmune diseases. Moreover, the sera from approximately 15% of the positive responders were found to react to matrix proteins indepen dent of the siloxane polymer. The data show human antibody production to native macromolecules with antibody avidity being related to molecu lar conformation. Silicone may function as an adjuvant by inducing cha nges in the conformation of native molecules. (C) 1993 John Wiley & So ns, Inc.