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GUANGZHOU, China: A team of Chinese researchers has managed to engineer tooth-like structures from human urine induced stem cells. They hope that the technique could be used to regenerate patient-specific dental tissue or even whole teeth. The findings may hold important implications for patients who have lost teeth owing to an accident or disease.
In the study, the researchers used nine distinct lines of pluripotent stem cells derived from the urine cells of three donors. Combined with dental mesenchyme, these cells were then transplanted into mice. After three weeks, the researchers observed the formation of tooth-like structures containing dental pulp, dentine and enamel, and possessing the properties of human teeth. Overall, they reported a 30 per cent success rate for tooth regeneration.
According to the researchers, adult dental stem cells have been used in tissue engineering research successfully. However, the absence of consistent sources of dental epithelial stem cells with odontogenic potential in adults is a major limiting factor of tooth regeneration from those cells. Thus, autogenic pluripotent stem cells induced from human urine could be a viable alternative, the researchers concluded. In the future, bioengineered tooth germs created from stem cells could be cultured in vitro and transplanted into a patient’s jawbone to form a fully functional tooth, they said.
The study, titled “Generation of tooth-like structures from integration-free human urine induced pluripotent stem cells”, was published online on 30 July in the Cell Regeneration journal. It was conducted at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with Jilin University, Peking University and Tsinghua University.
