Connective tissue diseases and bovine collagen implants.
Bovine collagen implants are biomaterial used for the correction of dermal contour deformities. The use of bovine collagen implants in patients with a personal history of autoimmune diseases is contraindicated by the manufacturer. In our study, sera from fifty patients with scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus were examined for antibodies to bovine collagen implants by means of a previously described enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. None of the patients had received bovine collagen implants. The anti-bovine collagen implant antibody levels in the sera of patients with scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis were not, in general, statistically different from those in the normal population.