ORIGINAL PAPER Periprosthetic breast capsules and immunophenotypes of inflammatory cells

Background Silicone gel-containing breast implants have been widely used for aesthetic and reconstructive mammo-plasty. The development of a periprosthetic capsule is con-sidered a local reparative process against the breast implant in which a variety of inflammatory cells may appear. Nev-ertheless, only few reports have evaluated the immunophe-notypes of those inflammatory cells. Herein, we aim to provide more information in this regard evaluating 40 patients with breast implants. Methods We studied the immunophenotype of the inflam-matory cells of capsular implants using antibodies against lymphocytes (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, CD45, and CD30) and histiocytes (CD68). Percentages of CD3 and CD20 positive cells were compared using the unpaired Student's