Is it possible to grow new teeth at the age of 50? This question would be easily answered as NO, for it has been a fact that we could not grow new teeth when we reach the age of 20 years. Wisdom tooth can still erupt in your early twenties but after that, once you lose your permanent teeth, they will never grow back. That is why dental hygiene is very important in keeping your teeth healthy. But wait, here's some good news that will give humans hope for growing new teeth in the future even if you are in your past thirties.
Reasearchers from China have discovered a way of growing new teeth using stem cells(master cells which can grow into any other type of tissue), taken from urine. This comes from a result of ongoing advances in tissue engineering that are pushing scientists into the boundaries of what this new science of tissue regenerating can achieve to make future humans live for a longer span of time.
The group at the Guangzhou intitutes of Biomedicine and Health used urine as the starting point. Cells which are normally just passed from the body such as urine are harvested in the laboratory. These collected cells are then converted into becoming stem cells. A mix of these cells together with other material from a mouse were implanted into the animals.
The researchers said that after three weeks the bundle of cells started to resemble a tooth. The tooth-like structure contained a dental pulp, dentin, enamel space and enamel organ. However, the so called "teeth" were not as hard as the natural teeth. But the researchers say that this could be just the start of the dream of a total regeration of human teeth.
No comments:
Post a Comment