Suh, Lily J, Khan, Imran, Kelley-Patteson, Christine et al. · Journal of immunology research · 2022 · DOI
This review examined reports of illness associated with breast implants, which can cause fatigue, joint pain, difficulty concentrating, and other symptoms similar to those in ME/CFS. Researchers found evidence that breast implants may trigger autoimmune problems in some people, and that removing implants improved symptoms in over half of patients studied. The review suggests that bacterial infections around implants, rather than the implant material itself, might be responsible for these problems.
This work is relevant to ME/CFS research because BII shares overlapping symptoms (fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, autoimmune features) with ME/CFS and may represent a distinct illness or subset. Understanding biofilm-mediated pathophysiology in BII could inform investigation of similar mechanisms in post-infection ME/CFS and other post-exposure syndromes. The implant-related model offers testable hypotheses about how foreign bodies may trigger sustained immune dysregulation.
This review does not establish that silicone or implant materials directly cause BII—it only documents symptom associations and does not provide definitive causal proof. The study does not confirm that biofilm is the mechanism in all cases, nor does it establish incidence rates or identify which patients are at highest risk. Association between implants and autoimmune disease does not prove the implant caused the disease, as confounding variables were not controlled.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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