This doesn't look good for the Tooth Fairy!

[/)eathKiller]

Apparently an oral surgeon was able to pull out a baby's teeth and after some examination he found stem cells located in the teeth which were more stable than cells taken from Adult Teeth, if this is true, then Medical Science could one day make a humane form of stem cell research based on isolating the stem cells from baby teeth! I'll need to get an internet article ASAP [img]tongue.gif[/img]

----------------------- *edit just in case you don't feel like going to the link here's the article*


Baby teeth revealed as source of stem cells

The tooth fairy could soon face competition for baby teeth from scientists who have discovered the teeth are a source of stem cells. The cells could help repair damaged teeth and perhaps even treat neural injuries or degenerative diseases.

Currently, researchers can isolate two types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can develop into any cell in the body, but their harvesting requires the destruction of embryos, which pro-life groups oppose. Adult stem cells avoid this problem, but have more limited abilities. Now it appears that the stem cells from children's lost teeth could provide an intermediate and easily accessible source.

"These stem cells seem to grow faster and have more potential to differentiate into other cell types than adult stem cells," says Songtao Shi, a pediatric dentist at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Shi and his colleagues found the baby teeth cells can differentiate into tooth-forming cells called ondontoblasts, and also neural cells and fat cells.

Baby teeth, also called milk teeth or deciduous teeth, appear from the age of about six months and then fall out when children are between six and 13 years old.


Daughter cells


Previous work by Shi in 2000 had already shown that extracted adult wisdom teeth contain stem cells in the pulp at the centre of the tooth (PNAS, vol 97, p 13625). So when his six-year old daughter and her friends started losing their baby teeth, he decided to see if they also contained stem cells.

Whenever a tooth fell out, instead of putting it under the pillow, the parents stored the tooth in a glass of milk in the refrigerator overnight.

To isolate the stem cells, Shi extracted the pulp and cultured the cells for several days, then tested the survivors for markers of stem cell activity. About 12 to 20 cells from a typical incisor tooth turn out to be stem cells.

By culturing the cells in various growth factors, Shi could differentiate the cells into tooth-forming cells, fat cells or neural cells. The differentiated cells survived when implanted under the skin and in the brain of immunocompromised mice.

Shi also found that the cells promote the growth of bone. He suspects the stem cells may play a role in preparing the way for adult teeth. "We don't have evidence at the moment, but we think these stem cells do have a reason to be there."

The discovery of stem cells in baby teeth could give a big boost to oral surgery, says oral biologist Bjorn Reino Olsen, at Harvard Medical School. The cells, once differentiated into odontoblasts, could secrete dentine. This bone-like material could then replace the less biocompatible metal posts that are currently used to anchor implants to the jaw.

Journal referenceroceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0937635100)


Web links:


US National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research


NIH Stem Cell Primer


Cloning and stem cells, New Scientist


Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

[ 04-23-2003, 05:58 PM: Message edited by: /)eathKiller ]

[WillowIX]

Well I didn´t know there were any stem-cells in teeth. Must be neural stem-cells, eh what was those called again? But the statement in your post above goes for pretty much any stem-cell in a newborn. You can take stem-cells from your marrow and make them into hepatic cells (liver cells that is). The body is very versatile in the early years. The older you get the more specialized your cells become. I´m glad to see you are taking an interest in medical science even if it would happen to be brief. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

That's fascinating. Tell me DeathKiller, did you manage to kill Death yet?

[/)eathKiller]

im interested in the medical feild because I'm majoring in Psychology, and half of "pop-science" is ethics...

as to the answer for vaskez - No, but I did introduce him to himself..

[/)eathKiller]

Here's An Article!

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by /)eathKiller: im interested in the medical feild because I'm majoring in Psychology, and half of "pop-science" is ethics... as to the answer for vaskez - No, but I did introduce him to himself..

Ah nice one, so what do you actually LEARN in psychology? Sounds like a dosser subject to me

[Ziroc]

Maybe we can grow some new teeth! I know SOME rare cases of people loosing a tooth (Adults with all adult teeth) will grow a NEW Adult tooth.

In the future, we may be able to grow a new liver (since a liver is geneticlly simple and has few proteins) and you insert the SC's into this spongey material, and after a few days, you got a new liver! Same for fingers, noses, ears. Right now, we can grow skin, and other simple things..

If you can get a URL on this, please post it.

[Stormymystic]

akkkkk...science....hiiiisssssssssss
that is worse than numbers for this southern girl.....lol

[/)eathKiller]

We could grow alot more than just teeth with these cells, We could re-grow pure bone matter!

[Stormymystic]

Originally posted by Ziroc: Maybe we can grow some new teeth! I know SOME rare cases of people loosing a tooth (Adults with all adult teeth) will grow a NEW Adult tooth. In the future, we may be able to grow a new liver (since a liver is geneticlly simple and has few proteins) and you insert the SC's into this spongey material, and after a few days, you got a new liver! Same for fingers, noses, ears. Right now, we can grow skin, and other simple things.. If you can get a URL on this, please post it.

They should study females in my family, we have a rare conditionas soon as we have children are teeth start falling out and breaking off