Latest news with #ACSMacroLetters
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Humans Could Grow Entirely New Teeth in Just a Few Years, Scientists Say
As helpful as they are to many, fillings and dental implants can be detrimental, and while they have long been the only solutions to decay, it may soon be possible for teeth to regrow themselves. A team of researchers figured out the ideal hydrogel to grow teeth from stem cells in vitro. In the future, entire teeth could be grown in that hydrogel and implanted, or tooth cells could get their start in the hydrogel and continue growing inside the mouth. Sitting in a dentist's waiting room is a dread that can only be numbed by Novocaine. No one wants a drill in their mouth, after all. But what if you never needed a root canal again, and could instead just grow entirely new teeth? Humans don't have the advantage of regenerating teeth like elephants or sharks. Until now, we've only had one chance to grow replacement teeth, and that passed us by at the age when most of us believed in the tooth fairy. After that, it's fillings and crowns all the way down. The problem with fillings is that they don't last forever and can weaken tooth structure, which causes sensitivity and (possibly) further decay. Artificial dental implants may look like teeth, but they can't restore tooth function and can lead to further complications. But there may finally be a solution which may minimize your visits to that ominous chair. While growing teeth in a lab has been attempted before, there was something missing. Now, a team of researchers led by Xuechen Zhang from the Faculty of Dentistry at King's College, London, has finally figured out the ideal environment for teeth to grow on their own in vitro. When teeth grow, the environment they grow in allows stem cells to communicate, sending signals that cause those stem cells differentiate into tooth cells. Previous experiments had not yet come up with an environment close enough to actual gums, which led to signals being sent all at once and disrupting the process. Zhang's team used hydrogels to develop a material, or matrix, close enough to the environment in the body for cells to send signals to each other in the right order and allow tooth organoids to grow. 'The development of tooth organoids involves the self-organization of cells into structures that mimic the cellular composition and functional attributes of the actual teeth,' he said in an study recently published in ACS Macro Letters. 'When these structures are transplanted in vivo, they can then fully develop into mature teeth.' Either pluripotent or tissue-resident stem cells can be used as tooth starters. Pluripotent stem cells can self-renew, and are versatile enough to differentiate into most tissues in the body. Tissue-resident stem cells, on the other hand, are tissue-specific progenitor cells that exist in all tissues and are used either for development or for replacement in case of injury. The cells used by Zhang came from mouse embryos, but he had used human cells in previous experiments, and plans to use them again in future research. Embryonic stem cells from two groups of mice were combined to create cell pellets that were then cultured to grow teeth. Several different hydrogels were tried, and how successfully the teeth grew from these stem cells depended on the properties of the different hydrogels. The developing teeth with the most structure and definition grew in a matrix that had the lowest stiffness and highest swelling, and were the only ones that actually grew into organoids. These fully developed organoids had both an epithelium (outer enamel layer) and mesenchyme (tooth pulp). 'To regenerate teeth through tissue engineering, epithelial and mesenchymal cells must interact within a [matrix] that facilitates these interactions, resulting in tooth organoids that can fully develop into teeth in vivo,' Zhang and his team said in the study. Growing an entire new tooth—or starting the process so that the cells can continue it when implanted—will require biomaterials like this recently developed hydrogel. Human teeth really could someday be grown in a lab, and one day, it may even be possible to inject stem cells into the gums and grow an entire new tooth right in your mouth. If you can avoid getting cavities for at least a few more years, you might never have to hear the sound of that drill again. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lab-grown teeth could be the future of dentistry
Researchers are closing in on a breakthrough that could one day change one of dentistry's most common practices: fillings. Building off work published late last year in ACS Macro Letters, a team at King's College London is developing methods for lab-grown replacement teeth and fillings made from human cells. Humanity has endured the pain of cavities for as long as we've had teeth, but the basic remedy has remained fundamentally the same for millennia. Evidence dating at least as far back as 13,000 years ago indicates Paleolithic peoples made fillings from a combination of bitumen, plant fibers, and even hair to adhere to a tooth's inner walls. Around 6,500 years ago, remedies in present-day Slovenia involved beeswax fillings, while Pliny the Elder referenced similar procedures in his Naturalis Historia (shortly before his untimely demise during the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE). Today's dental fillings can be composed of multiple synthetic materials like alloys, amalgams, and composite resins. But at the end of the day, a filling is a filling—and they can still pose problems. 'Fillings aren't the best solution for [repairing] teeth. Over time, they will weaken tooth structure, have a limited lifespan, and can lead to further decay or sensitivity,' Xuechen Zhang said in an April 14 university profile. More intensive therapies like implants can also add further complications, and require a precisely crafted prosthetics to attach to the alveolar bone. Zhang and fellow researchers have spent years attempting to grow human teeth in the lab using organoids, but routinely hit a wall when trying to direct cells to communicate with one another. Without the ability to 'tell' one another that they need to form into tooth cells, the organoids simply couldn't grow from there. However, Zhang's team discovered a solution after collaborating with experts at nearby Imperial College. The problem was that their target cells previously attempted to send signals all at once, as if they were simultaneously shouting over one another. By suspending mouse cells in specialized three-dimensional matrices made with modified hydrogels, the cells paced their signal releases and properly communicated tooth production plans. 'This new material releases signals slowly over time, replicating what happens in the body,' explained Zhang. Now that it's possible to create teeth from bioengineered mouse stem cells, researchers are moving on to investigating the best methods to get future human versions into mouths. In the case of whole tooth replacement, options may include transplanting young cells from a lab culture directly into the space where it was, then fostering them to grow into an entirely new tooth. Another possibility may be to grow an entire tooth in the laboratory, then treating it like a natural implant once it is ready. 'Lab-grown teeth would naturally regenerate, integrating into the jaw as real teeth,' said Zhang. 'They would be stronger, longer lasting, and free from rejection risks, offering a more durable and biologically compatible solution than fillings or implants.'
