- LONDON (AFP) -- Fake teeth,
denture glue and sucking on bald gums may soon become a thing of the past,
say a group of British scientists working on a procedure that makes teeth
grow from stem cells implanted in the gum.
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- The scientists at King's College, London announced Monday
they had made a breakthrough in mice, coaxing stem cells to grow into teeth
within only a few weeks.
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- The procedure entails taking stem cells from a living
being, nurturing them in a laboratory until they form a ball of new cells
known as a bud, and inserting the bud into the gum where the new tooth
is needed.
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- The researchers estimate human teeth in adults could
take about two months to develop fully.
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- Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the potential
to grow into other kinds of cells in the body, and are often used in biological
research.
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- The college has set up a private company, Odontis, to
develop the venture, and was given a start-up grant of 500,000 pounds (750,000
euros, 895,000 dollars) to work toward a commercial product for humans,
the BBC reported.
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- Testing on humans could begin in about two years.
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- "There is no reason why it shouldn't work in humans,
the principles are the same," Paul Sharpe, a specialist in the field
of regenerative dentistry and the developer of the technique, told the
Guardian newspaper.
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- If proven successful, the procedure could be a boon for
Britain, where people over 50 lose on average 12 of their 32 teeth.
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- Sharpe says the procedure could have advantages over
false teeth that require a metal post to be driven into the jaw.
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- "That surgery can be extensive and you need to have
good solid bone in the jaw and that's a major problem for some people,"
said Sharpe.
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- "The new method could be used on far more patients
because the ball of cells that grows into a tooth also produces bone that
anchors to the jaw."
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- In what is expected to be a simple procedure, the new
method will require only a local anaesthetic.
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- The cost of growing a real tooth should also be no more
than that of a synthetic implant, between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds (2,226-2,969
euros, 2,657-3,544 dollars).
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- But gap-toothed Britons will have to wait to fill their
smile.
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- The optimistic scientists say they hope to make the technology
available to the general public within five years.
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- "A key advantage of our technology is that a living
tooth can preserve the health of the surrounding tissues much better than
an artificial prosthesis," Sharpe told the BBC.
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- "Teeth are living, and they are able to respond
to a person's bite."
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