Teeth bred from human urine

„Tissue engineering“: Scientists breed teeth from urine

08/25/2013

People are getting older and therefore are increasing „spare Parts“ asked for the body. Artificial joints or artificial skin has already been developed by the medical community. Researchers in China have now succeeded in breeding teeth - from human urine.

Future dentures
Scientists at the Chinese Guangzhou Institute for Biomedicine and Health seem to have made a small sensation. They breed teeth from human urine. In a report in the „Cell Regeneration Journal“ The research group leaves no doubt that one day it would be possible to produce dentures in this way in the future. The complete restoration of a human tooth is the goal of her work.

Somewhat softer than normal teeth
This is to be made possible by so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), which could be obtained from urine. The Chinese scientists used it to grow small tooth-like formations that were a bit softer than normal teeth but would otherwise have almost the same characteristics. According to the researchers, the tissue consists of dental pulp, dentin layer and tooth enamel. Scientists used stem cells derived from urine and first connected them with connective tissue cells derived from mouse teeth and then implanted them in the animals. Currently, the tooth-breeding is not in the „commitment“. There is still a risk of contamination by bacteria contained in the urine.

„Tissue engineering“
However, the Chinese scientists are convinced that their results will be followed by further studies and in the future the complete restoration of a human tooth will be possible. The method of „Tissue engineering“ (TE) is considered a major advance in medicine. By TE is meant the artificial production of biological tissue by the targeted cultivation of cells so that diseased tissue in a patient can be replaced or regenerated. Dentist dr. Diana Svoboda explained to you „Bild.de“: „Tissue engineering is well on the way to revolutionizing dentistry. Excellent progress has been made in research so that teeth could be grown in vitro, ie in a test tube, as conventional tissue engineering, but also in vivo - in the jaw of an animal - as part of a tooth regeneration.“ However, there is still no experience as to whether the results obtained so far only in animal experiments are transferable to humans. Dr. Svoboda says that in about ten to 20 years, the first biological tooth will be used in humans. (Ad)

Picture credits: Dieter Schütz