Open wide and say 'Awww!': Stem cells grow replacement tooth for live adult mouse.

[BurtWorm]

http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2009/08/an_organ_replaced_fully_functional_bioengineered_tooth_debuts.html



The individual in the photo is not displaying his newly acquired gold tooth bling, but rather something more precious: the first fully functioning 3D organ derived from stem cells, described in PNAS as "a successful fully functioning tooth replacement in an adult mouse achieved through the transplantation of bioengineered tooth germ into the alveolar bone in the lost tooth region."

More from The Wall Street Journal:

Researchers used stem cells to grow a replacement tooth for an adult mouse, the first time scientists have developed a fully functioning three-dimensional organ replacement, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers at the Tokyo University of Science created a set of cells that contained genetic instructions to build a tooth, and then implanted this "tooth germ" into the mouse's empty tooth socket. The tooth grew out of the socket and through the gums, as a natural tooth would. Once the engineered tooth matured, after 11 weeks, it had a similar shape, hardness and response to pain or stress as a natural tooth, and worked equally well for chewing. The researchers suggested that using similar techniques in humans could restore function to patients with organ failure.


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[boobooday]

1. Where do we sign up?

:rofl:

No. Seriously.

[underseasurveyor]

8. Hey I 'm with ya on that.

Shit too..... where is the sign up sheet.

[Posteritatis]

2. Very cool; kicked! (nt)

[annabanana]

3. This is HUGE!!

Imagine if you could grow a THIRD SET OF TEETH to replace the ones that tend to wear out when you reach 45-60 years old? When the human tooth bumps up against our original life-span we have to spend so much money on poor replacements.

Wouldn't it be GREAT if we could sign up for a new set of home-grown?

[csziggy]

5. Heck, I had three baby teeth with no adult teeth to replace them!

I could have used this thirty (or more) years ago, though I did keep those baby teeth fifteen years longer than the dentist expected (floss, floss, FLOSS!).

But now the rest of my teeth are wearing out - I want new ones, and not the damn fake ones!

[Posteritatis]

11. I think it's a ripoff that humans don't do the shark thing with teeth. (nt)

[ashling]

4. I am waiting for somebody to reginerate

nerve tissue, as part of my left optic nerve is "permanently" damaged

[Deep13]

6. My dentist was telling me about this. nt

[eShirl]

7. I can just guess how much that is going to cost. n/t

[Posteritatis]

10. New medical procedures being initially expensive? I'm stunned. (nt)

[greguganus]

9. People are gonna look funny with mouse teeth. n/t

[Curtland1015]

12. Surely Obama's Tooth Panel will judge me unworthy!

Damn socialism! :sarcasm:

[kentauros]

13. I like that!

And here's another bit of technology for regrowing teeth:

Pulsed Ultrasound Tooth Regeneration
I haven't heard anything more about this one, so I don't know if it's being researched further...

[misanthrope]

14. Google "extra cellular matrix stem cell regeneration"**nm

**