Scientists at the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, U.S.A. are working on lab-grown teeth that can be used as implants in humans.
The research published on 27 December 2024 says the scientists grew a mixture of pig and human tooth cells in pieces of pig teeth to create bioengineered structures that resemble real human teeth.
The experiment brings scientists closer to finding a more suitable replacement for bad teeth in humans than titanium screws.
Solving a major problem
The idea of growing a tooth that can be implanted in humans is a serious issue, as replacing a tooth is a difficult thing to do.
Currently, dental implants are made of titanium and can have complications leading to other health issues. The scientist, Pamela Yelick said:
“It’s very difficult to replace an implant, because first you have to rebuild all the bone that has been absorbed over time that’s gone away. We’re working on trying to create functional replacement teeth.”
For this research, Yelick together with Weibo Zhong use cells from pig jaws collected from slaughter houses. This is possible because pigs grow multiple sets of teeth in their lifetimes, so there are always cells from underdeveloped teeth.
The scientists then grow them in the lab and produce “tens of millions” of cells, which Yelick in a previous experiment found that they grow into toothlike structures when implanted in a living body.
In the current experiment, Yelick grew a mixture of human and pig tooth cells inside scaffolds created from pieces of pig teeth.
She later implanted the tooth fragments in the jaws of six mini pigs and found that they were growing in a way similar to healthy human teeth with layers of cementum and dentin.after two months.
According to Yelick, the teeth are not well formed yet, but the findings offer hope for growing functional teeth that will serve as replacement for those who need them in the future.
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