DT News - UK - Engineers generate teeth from patients’ own gum cells

Dental Tribune International

Fri. 22 March 2013

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LONDON, UK: To date, research on bioengineered teeth has largely focused on the use of embryonic cells. However, a new study has shown that teeth can be formed from isolated gingival tissue as well. The researchers believe that this bio-tooth formation could provide a viable alternative to dental implants in the future.

According to the researchers, current implant methods of tooth replacement fail to reproduce natural root structures and involve the risk of bone loss around the implant. In addition, embryonic stem cells are impractical for use in general therapy, although they readily form immature teeth following dissociation into single-cell populations and subsequent recombination. Thus, the current study suggests that there is a realistic prospect that bio-teeth generated from easily accessible adult gingival cells can become a clinically reality, they said.

In the study, the researchers collected gingival samples from patients, grew more tissue in the laboratory and combined it with tooth-forming mesenchyme cells from mice. By transplanting the cell combination into the mice, the researchers were able to grow hybrid human/mouse teeth with viable roots and containing dentine and enamel.

“The next major challenge is to identify a way to culture adult human mesenchymal cells to be tooth-inducing, as at the moment we can only make embryonic mesenchymal cells do this,” said Prof. Paul Sharpe, an expert in craniofacial development and stem cell biology at the Dental Institute at King’s College London, who led the study.

The findings were published online on 4 March in the Journal of Dental Research.

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