UK Researchers Use Gum Cells To Grow New Teeth
Researchers from King’s College London have used gum cells to grow new teeth; the project suggests that one day dentists could replace missing teeth with new teeth grown from gum cells.
The research team took epithelial cells from the gums and combined them with mesenchyme cells from mice to grow new teeth; researchers used the mesenchyme cells to “instruct” in this case, which encouraged the epithelial gum cells to start growing into a new tooth. The team transplanted the combination of cells into the mice and the result was the development of human/mouse teeth, which had an effective root system. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Dental Research.
Despite the positive step forward, researchers insist that it will be many years before dentists are replacing missing teeth with new human teeth.
The next step for researchers will be to gain access to a readily available supply of human mesenchyme cells and to produce enough to create a viable system.
Professor Paul Sharpe, lead author of the study, said that human mesenchyme cells could be found in the pulp of wisdom teeth; however, the difficulty was finding enough cells to make the production system viable for use in a dental clinic. The team will now work on developing a method of culturing mesenchymal cells.
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