A team of researchers has succeeded in engineering stem cells taken from tooth germ to quickly develop into liver or bone tissue, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology’s Research Institute (AIST) for Cell Engineering said.
A joint team of scientists from the institute and Osaka University succeeded in repairing damaged liver and bones in rats using stem cells taken from wisdom tooth germ.
The finding raises hopes of developing regenerative medicine using wisdom teeth germ taken from people during orthodontic treatments.
Tooth germ disappears as a tooth is formed, but that of a wisdom tooth stays in the jawbone of a human until the age of 10 to 16, because wisdom teeth grow slowly.
An experiment proved that stem cells taken from wisdom tooth germ grow far more quickly than stem cells taken from bone marrow.
The team discovered that the tooth germ can be turned into bone, nerves or liver cells by stimulating it with hormones.
The researchers have previously used stem cells taken from bone marrow to create cells of various organs, including bone and heart muscle. Bone marrow stem cells have been used successfully in the treatment of patients.
However, the new method that uses tooth germ has been shown to create cells of organs faster than the method that uses stem cells taken from bone marrow.
A rat with a liver disorder made a full recovery three weeks after it received a human tooth germ cell transplant.
