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Fully Functional Bioengineered Tooth Grown In a Mouse
A couple of weeks back the Wall Street Journal reported on the first organ grown in vivo from stem cells — a tooth in the mouth of a mouse. Reader cdrpsab spotted the news on the MedGadget blog; the research had been reported earlier in the PNAS. From the WSJ: "The researchers at the Tokyo University of Science created a set of cells that contained genetic instructions to build a tooth, and then implanted this 'tooth germ' into the mouse's empty tooth socket. The tooth grew out of the socket and through the gums, as a natural tooth would. Once the engineered tooth matured, after 11 weeks, it had a similar shape, hardness and response to pain or stress as a natural tooth, and worked equally well for chewing. The researchers suggested that using similar techniques in humans could restore function to patients with organ failure."
Yours sincerely,
Dean, on behalf of millions of Type I diabetics
P.S. I *love* hearing about this stuff. The potential for helping millions is incredible.
The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures (Junius)
Honestly, I don't think that calling a tooth an organ is very much of a stretch. Teeth have their own blood vessels and nerves, and consist of a large proportion of living tissue. This little blurb provides what I think is a convincing, if hardly exhaustive, argument that teeth are organs.
I seem to recall reading an article many years ago about a trial in the UK in which this same technique was working quite well on humans. Of course I can't seem to track down the article now, and the closest thing I did find was this article from five years ago about a business providing this service. Unfortunately, it only muddies the waters further by including the line "To date, no companies or research groups in the world have been able to demonstrate the formation of a living, natural tooth." Does anyone else remember the trial I mentioned or am I just imagining things again?
It wouldn't be bad if humans were able to grow new teeth every thirty to forty years or so.
Teeth wear down, cracks and so on so it would sure not be bad.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
She builds her castle out of them.
To anybody wishing for this: be sure to specify that the teeth grow in the correct place. The alternative is rather gross.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.
Toughest tag to parse, EVAR!
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The Georgians couldn't believe my friends were in their 40s. The Georgians almost always didn't have teeth left. This was in the rural areas though. *shrug*
Actually yeah. If you look to the animal kingdom you will find that old animals do indeed have worn down teeth that are no longer sharp and effective.
Humans wear out joints, spines, feet, wrists, hearts, livers, kidneys, etc from those parts just doing what they were meant to do.
I mean, who in his right mind thinks that our teeth are unable to withstand the very thing they are made for and are optimized to do since the dawn of times?
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with physical anthropology, that's who. Back in the days when people lived as you advocate, they rarely made it to 40, and tooth loss was a major factor in their deaths.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."