Stem Cells as New Breast Implants?

In weird and weirder news about breast implants I found an interesting if not kind of creepy article about a developing study on using human stem cells to locally grow new fatty breast cells and tissue as an alternative to breast implants for reconstructive surgery (as in, for women who’ve had mastectomies or other breast deformities). 

A scientist at the University of Illinois took human stem cells and used the cells to grow fatty breast tissue using a “biologically compatible scaffolding”.

The tissue was then transplanted into mice with an immune deficiency to prevent them from rejecting the newly implanted tissue. Miraculously, the implants maintained their size and shape after four weeks, but the story did not go on to say if they lasted any longer or if any complications occurred.

Breast implants that are grown from human stem cells could possibly, if this actually works some day and proven 100% safe, provide a safer alternative to the silicone or saline implants that are currently available to implant patients, which can rupture and are also a cause of interference in mammograms.

They could also be better looking and feeling, if they are engineered to keep their size and shape over the years a woman has them in her body, unlike implants which are said to lose their integrity over the years (but of course you know, this is why you must replace them).