Pigmentation of the nipple-areolar complex and its reconstitution in breast reconstruction / Nicola Ruth Dean.

Abstract

This thesis describes research to assess the quality of current methods of nipple-areolar reconstruction on women who have undergone mastectomy for breast cancer. Special attention was paid to pigmentation, and the feasibility of producing an engineered pigmented skin substitute that could be used in this clinical context. Therefore, the research falls into three main parts: a clinical study of patients who have undergone breast reconstruction, a histological study of normal areolar skin and a cell culture study. The study describes a method to grow keratinocytes and melanocytes in vitro from adult surgical discard skin from the breast and abdomen.