Scientists Grow Human Teeth (From Mouse Embryos!)

Scientists have announced that they have grown new teeth, complete with roots using cells from human adult gum tissue.

Teasing Out New Teeth
"Researchers mix cells from human adult gum tissue with tooth-inducing cells from mouse embryos to grow new hybrid teeth complete with roots."

Cells taken from adult human gums can be combined with cells from the molars of fetal mice to form teeth with viable roots, according to research published this week in the Journal of Dental Research. The method remains a long way from clinical use, but the findings represent a step toward the goal of growing bio-engineered replacements for lost teeth.

Teeth develop when embryonic epithelial cells in the mouth combine with mesenchymal cells derived from the neural crest. Previous studies have shown that these cells can be combined in the lab to formal normal teeth, but the challenge was to find non-embryonic source of the cells that could be used in the clinic.

Implants may have been out for a while, but this is definitely great news for medical technology.
Anyone else feel like we are right on the brink of some "medical renaissance"?
How long will it be before doctors and dentists are 3D printing their patients new teeth, organs, etc.?

This is good stuff for anyone missing a tooth or two (or five, or all) --- Certainly this will not be cheap, but in five years, what new kinds of technology will we be experiencing? Surely as this becomes more commonplace, the price for these procedures will go down!

Exciting stuff, if anyone has any other information they would like to add, please feel free to reply to this thread.

And happy St. Patty's Day - Worry not if you happen to fall on your face, you'll be growing new teeth in no time

They have been promising to regenerate teeth for atleast 10 years. And if they are still messing about with mouse embryos then they can stick their "hybrid" teeth where the sun don't shine. I'd rather have no teeth than ones that came from mice.

mouse teeth?
great for chewing through walls, wire insulation, cardboard.....bankvaults

all i want for christmas....

please though
no mouse balls

reply to post by Danbones


Way to look at it positively. Those mouse chompers can DESTROY.

It will be only a matter of time before it is not necessary to use the little mice in tandem with human teeth.

Until then, I remain lucky.. Mid 20's and still never had a cavity.

reply to post by ThinkingCap


I would prefer being able to grow my new teeth on my own body,maybe in the arm or hand somewhere.
Then get em fitted when they were ready.
Less chance of mouse contamination that way,and zero chance of rejection of the teeth.
However,new teeth are no good without healthy gums-when they figure out how to fix our gums,then these magic teeth could be worth a go.
Sure I read botox is being used to fill out shrunken/older gums.
Maybe a stem cell shot would work better?
Hmm.

reply to post by ThinkingCap

this procedure was invented by DR. Hsu ? at cornell dental school back in 2011 ,who used stem cells from human
embryos or your bone marrow to grow whole set of permanent teeth in matrixes in the sockets of the teeth pulled.Only 9 months you got a whole new set. No implants with titanium rods. No unwanted radio stations all day long.How come this was made public now? The consumer will never see the day when dentists will grow teeth in your mouth because of greed and red tape.

The problem here is that this latest work is totally & completely useless on many fronts!

They have combined human & mice stem cells which will never take to the human immune system. On top of that, they can only do it with embryonic stem cells, which they will never be able to use in any human patients. If that wasn't enough, they implanted the tooth seed in a mice kidney before it would grow. Again, something else that's never ever gonna happen in a human patient.

The problem here is that the Japanese team led by Takashi Tsuji done the same thing (minus the human stem cells) a few years ago. They used mice as test subjects & implanted stem cell cultured 'tooth buds' into their kidneys. So what the heck is the point, it's a complete waste of precious research grants to screw around with this.

What bugs me the most is the work carried out by this latest team (led by Dr Paul Sharpe) is nothing new. He's been doing this for over a decade using mice & a few claims have been made by members of the team(s) throughout this period. Claims like being able to manipulate the size & shape of the individual teeth which the Japanese team who actually had grown a mouse tooth could not do. The main ones for me came around the middle of the last decade, at this point they were supposed to be close to starting human trials (can't remember the year off-hand but it was either 06, 07 or 08). Then they would be doing it clinically by the end of the last decade. So much so that a commercial spin-off company named 'Odontis' was created. Nothing ever came of it & said company is now kaput!

Now all these years later it's went full circle again & they are back to wasting what little grant money they have in methods that will never ever ever work in the manner that was initially intended. For the past 15/20 years regrowing new teeth has only been a decade away & with this latest work, it's now only another 10-15 years away from being practical to humans. If it still has these same 'schmucks' at the helm at that time, then I won't be getting my hopes up!