Using Wisdom Teeth To Make Stem Cells

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Using Wisdom Teeth To Make Stem Cells

Posted by samzenpus on Saturday September 11, 2010 @04:49AM from the spare-parts dept.

An anonymous reader writes "For most people, wisdom teeth are not much more than an annoyance that eventually needs to be removed. However, a new study appearing in the September 17 Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that wisdom teeth contain a valuable reservoir of tissue for the creation of stem cells; thus, everyone might be carrying around his or her own personal stem-cell repository should he or she ever need some. Groundbreaking research back in 2006 revealed that inducing the activity of four genes in adult cells could 'reprogram' them back into a stem-cell-like state; biologically, these induced-pluripotent stem cells are virtually identical to embryonic stem cells, opening up a new potential avenue for stem-cell therapy whereby patients could be treated with their own stem cells."

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Great! by schmidt349 · 2010-09-11 04:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

Could you maybe have told me this _before_ I had them yanked?
1. Re:Great! by morari · 2010-09-11 05:36 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Your genetic datas was probably already overly corrupted from coke and coffee.
  Coffee, maybe. The coke just gets snorted though, it never even touches my teeth.
  Coke and coffee. How I love my Colombian exports! :)
  
  --
  "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
2. Re:Great! by Yvan256 · 2010-09-11 07:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Why would he want an army of cellphones? /duck
Re:And baby teeth by durrr · 2010-09-11 05:00 · Score: 4, Informative

Unless you properly freeze the teeth the stem cells will probably be quite dead a few days after the teeth is pulled, not to mention a few decades later when stem cells might be in need.
Re:And baby teeth by rubycodez · 2010-09-11 05:03 · Score: 3, Informative

some biology 101 for you, the pulp of those teeth are dead without living tissue in them. The roots are dissolved by the body and the tissues inside die.
Re:And baby teeth by Fieryphoenix · 2010-09-11 05:04 · Score: 3, Funny

Yeah... those puppies are worth a few dollars if you know the proper drop location.
Just wisdom teeth? by mibe · 2010-09-11 05:06 · Score: 3, Interesting

It seems from everything I've read that any teeth will do. Kids' baby teeth and wisdom teeth have been mentioned, but why not any other tooth? Wisdom teeth are anatomically similar to the rest of your teeth, so I don't think anyone willing to give up one of their permanent teeth will be excluded from any awesome stem cell therapy in the future.
1. Re:Just wisdom teeth? by durrr · 2010-09-11 05:09 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In the future, you'll see toothless guys hauling dick on wheelbarrows.
2. Re:Just wisdom teeth? by Cylix · 2010-09-11 05:37 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Due to replication errors there is a possibility the new tooth may grow back EVIL!
  
  --
  "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
You have more than one tooth. by wickerprints · 2010-09-11 05:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

At least, most people do. The root pulp cells being converted to stem cells are not unique to the wisdom teeth. I presume they are also present in other teeth; it's just that the third molars are usually extracted anyway (though some people do retain them, provided there's enough space in the dentition for them). If we're talking about choosing to treat a life-threatening disease versus keeping a tooth, I would think most people would choose the former--of course, we aren't quite at the point where such procedures are beyond the research stage (thanks to the religious nutcases).
1. Re:You have more than one tooth. by wickerprints · 2010-09-11 07:00 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  One could argue that adult stem cell research has been spurred because of restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. But that view fails to recognize that in order to obtain adult stem cells, one has to go through more involved processes just to get the cells in a potentially useful state--in fact, that is what makes the approach discussed in TFA interesting (that one has a better chance of getting such cells from the root pulp in teeth, than say, skin cells).
  Thus, restrictions on embryonic stem cells have seriously slowed down research into how we can use stem cells (of any kind) to treat disease, because not only do scientists have to figure out how to get adult stem cells to do what they want, they also have to GET TO THEM. We would know more about all kinds of stem cells if public funding existed for embryonic stem cell research. Instead, researchers have to expend extra effort getting adult cells to revert to a pluripotent state, instead of being able to concentrate on understanding how such cells could be used to treat disease. We are nowhere near solving the problems of how to get these cells to do what we would like them to do, because it is so insanely fucking difficult to get them to begin with, and if you think that this has nothing to do with the religious nutcases, you are oblivious to reality.
2. Re:You have more than one tooth. by priegog · 2010-09-11 07:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The embryonic stem cells ban didn't apply to the rest of the world, and still no therapies have derived from embryonic stem cells (wan't there a site devoted to reporting in these?). There are, however, a couple of therapies derived from adult stem cells, both from the US and from other countries.
  Restricting science is short-sighted and all, but I never really cared for research coming from embryonic stem cells (it just seemed the WRONG approach altogether, when any resulting therapy would need to have the patient placed on lifelong immunosupression, like any transplant patient; but feel free to call me shortsighted).
  You also need to consider that Bush's ban allowed for research to continue on EXISTING cell lines, and those were pretty plentiful (you know, being stem cells and as such immortal).
  I just feel the level of outrage on this particular issue has been very disproportionate; and that it has turned more into an anti-religious argument than a pro-science one.
In a related news... by Katatsumuri · 2010-09-11 08:00 · Score: 5, Informative

Japanese scientists successfully made stem cells from wisdom teeth back in 2008.
They used wisdom teeth that had been frozen for three years after being removed from a 10-year-old girl.