Scientists Grow Teeth From Gum Cells

Human Gum Cells Realistic Source for Engineering Human Bioteeth

Sharpe and colleagues isolated epithelial cells from adult human gum tissue, and then cultured them with mouse embryonic tooth mesenchyme cells.

The gum tissue came from patients at the Dental Institute at King's College London.

When transplanted into mice, the epithelial-mesenchyme cell combination formed hybrid human-mouse teeth with dentine, enamel, and viable roots.
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Sharpe says the study shows that in the lab at least, epithelial cells from adult human tissue are able to respond to the tooth-producing signals from the mouse embryonic tooth mesenchyme cells "in an appropriate way to contribute to tooth crown and root formation and give rise to relevant differentiated cell types".

"These easily accessible epithelial cells are thus a realistic source for consideration in human biotooth formation," he concludes.

So the next major challenge, is to find a way to get adult human mesenchymal cells to send tooth-inducing signals, because at the moment, the researchers can only get embryonic mesenchymal cells to do that.

Source : medicalnewstoday