News from NIAID - October 17, 1993
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

Researchers are studying the possible link between silicone compounds and autoimmune diseases as well as the short- and long- term effects of silicone compounds on the molecules, cells and function of the immune system.

"This basic research will yield information valuable for determining the safety of silicone implants and injections," says Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIAID.

Silicone is used in various medical devices. By far, the most common use is in breast implants, but silicone also is employed in artificial joints, blood vessel grafts, testicular prostheses, heart valves and shunts for hydrocephalus, a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid collects in the skull.

Many anecdotal reports suggest an association of silicone- containing implants and silicone injections with autoimmune diseases as scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and illnesses in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues.

"No definitive evidence exists to support or rule out the link between the development of autoimmune diseases and the presence of silicone," says Elaine Collier, M.D. chief of the autoimmunity section of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation, NIAID.

"In addition, only limited information is available concerning the effects of silicone on normal immune responses and on maintaining immune tolerance to one's own cells," she says. "Studies conducted at the new sites will shed more light on these important areas of research."

The four sites and the principal investigators who received NIAID awards include Eng M. Tan, M.D., at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., John O. Niam, Ph.D., at the Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., Henry N. Claman, M.D. at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, and Fredika M. Robertson, Ph.D., at the Ohio State University Research Foundation in Columbus. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) has funded an additional site headed by Peter H. Schur, M.D., at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.

NIAID, one of 17 institutes at the National Institutes of Health, supports investigators and scientific studies at universities, medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions in the United States and abroad, aimed at conducting research on AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases as well as allergic and immunologic diseases. NIH is an agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, part of the U.S. Department of health and Human Services.