Chinese Scientists Grow Human Teeth from Urine
China is making significant progress in the field of
stem cell research
stem cell research
Last month Chinese scientists announced that they have succeeded in growing rudimentary teeth using stem cells. The results, published in Cell Regeneration Journal, showed that human urine could be used as a source of stem cells that in turn could be grown into tiny tooth-like structures.
The scientists from the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health hope the technique could be developed into a way of replacing lost teeth.
How they did it was taking human stem cells obtained from human urine and combined them with tissue from a mouse jaw taken from a mouse embryo. As stem cells can take on the form of whatever body part they’re implanted into, the scientists hoped the human stem cells would produce human tissue. And since it was implanted into a mouse jaw, they gambled that the item grown would be a tooth. And they were right on both hypotheses. Once the human stem cells were successfully implanted into the mouse jaw material, the tiny package was then implanted into the kidneys of live mice. It took the stem cells and jaw material only three weeks to grow into a human tooth-like structure. The stem cells had developed into a cyst. And inside each cyst was a small tooth.
The researchers admit that their success rate was only 30%. But they were more than encouraged by their results. The teeth they grew were as hard as human teeth and could even be grown to specific sizes and shapes to create the right replacement tooth for future dental patients.
This innovative example shows that China is making significant progress in the field of stem cell research.
© Cell Regeneration Journal – Scientists turned urine stem cells into teeth.
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