Fig. 5: Characterization of injectable elastomers in vivo.

a Schematic and explanted specimens of the injectable elastomer NCO:OH 1:8 (left), and Silicone Gel-1 (right) after 12 weeks subcutaneous (top), and intramuscular (bottom) administration. The ex vivo cured implanted elastomer maintains its implanted rectangular shape with sharp edges, while the silicone gel becomes round and exhibits traces of partial fragmentation. b Histology of intramuscular specimens at 1, 4, and 12 weeks explanation of the injectable elastomer NCO:OH 1:8 and Silicone Gel-1 stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and c using the Mallory’s procedure. The scale bars in b, c correspond to 100 and 50 μm, respectively. d Comparing thickness of the fibrous layer in injectable elastomer NCO:OH 1:8 and Silicone Gel-1 explanted at 1, 4, and 12 weeks. The capsular thickness was measured in 10 different locations for n = 6 male Wistar white rats at 1, 4, and 12 weeks. The boxplot displays the distribution of the raw data. For each box, the middle line corresponds to the median, while the lower and upper hinges correspond to the first and third quartiles, the upper whisker extends from the hinge to the largest value no further than 1.5 × IQR from the hinge (where IQR is the inter-quartile range) and the lower whisker extends from the hinge to the smallest value at most 1.5 × IQR of the hinge.