Baby teeth revealed as source of stem cells

- Article from Divya Bhasker

20th January,2013 (Sunday)

Deciduous teeth, otherwise known as reborner teeth, baby teeth, temporary teeth and primary teeth, are the first set of teeth in the growth development of humans and many other mammals. In some Asian countries they are referred to as fall teeth as they will eventually fall out ,while in almost all European languages they are called milk teeth. They develope during the embryonic stage of development and erupt—that is, they become visible in the mouth—during infancy. They are usually lost and replaced by permanent teeth, but in the absence of permanent replacements, they can remain functional for many years.

Milk Teeth

MILK TEETH (deciduous) teeth start coming through when babies are between 5 and 8 months old. They are smaller than adults' teeth because children's jaws are smaller. As the jaws grow, more teeth come through. There are 20 deciduous teeth altogether, and they finish coming through by about age 2 to 2½ years.

Why are the milk teeth called so?Milk teeth are called so due to their white colour which resembles the colour of milk. The milk teeth are whiter than the permanent teeth which replace them. The refractive index of milk teeth is similar to that of milk and hence they are called so.

Deciduous teeth start to form during the embryo phase of pregnancy. The development of deciduous teeth starts at the sixth week of development as the dental lamina. This process starts at the midline and then spreads back into the posterior region. By the time the embryo is eight weeks old, there are ten areas on the upper and lower arches that will eventually become the deciduous dentition.

These teeth will continue to form until they erupt in the mouth. In the deciduous dentition there are a total of twenty teeth: five per quadrant and ten per arch. The eruption of these teeth ("teething") begins at the age of six months and continues until twenty-five to thirty-three months of age. Usually, the first teeth seen in the mouth are the mandibular centrals and the last are the maxillary second molars.

The deciduous dentition is made up of central incisors, lateral incisors, canines, first molars, and secondary molars; there is one in each quadrant, making a total of four of each tooth. All of these are gradually replaced with a permanent counterpart except for the first and second molars; they are replaced by premolars. The replacement of deciduous teeth begins around age six. At that time, the permanent teeth start to appear in the mouth, resulting in mixed dentition. The erupting permanent teeth causes root resorption, where the permanent teeth push on the roots of the deciduous teeth, causing the roots to be dissolved and become absorbed by the forming permanent teeth. The process of shedding deciduous teeth and the replacement by permanent teeth is called exfoliation. This may last from age six to age twelve. By age twelve there usually are only permanent teeth remaining.

Teething age of deciduous teeth:Central incisors : 6–12 monthsLateral incisors : 9–16 monthsFirst molars : 13–19 monthsCanine teeth : 16–23 monthsSecond molars : 22–33 months Deciduous teeth are considered essential in the development of the oral cavity by dental researchers and dentists. The permanent teeth replacements develop from the same tooth bud as the deciduous teeth; this provides a guide for permanent teeth eruption. Also the muscles of the jaw and the formation of the jaw bones depend on the primary teeth in order to maintain the proper space for permanent teeth. The roots of deciduous teeth provide an opening for the permanent teeth to erupt. These teeth are also needed for proper development of a child's speech and chewing of food.

The Stem Cells are derived from the milky teeth & can be preserved till 21 years in the “Dental Pulp Stem cell Bank”.

These Stem cells are used in the treatment for the future dangerous diseases such as liver diseases,kidney diseases,Cancer,Spinal Cord injuries, Eye related diseases,etc.

Stemed Biotech M.D. Shailesh Aadre Informed during the launching ceremony of Dental Stem Cell Bank that in mumbai,delhi,haidrabad,banglore,chennai & pune centers, 1200 persons has preserved their dental stem cells.

This whole process of taking the dental pulp from the teeth costs around 1,25000 Rs.

It is easy to take stem cells from teeth than to take them from bones by surgery.

Milk teeth fall of by 5 to 11 years.

It is also possible to take stem cells from the wisdom teeth from adults. Then they have been sent to Chennai Center.

The similarity of dental stem cells from Brother & Sister is about 75% & from mother & father is about 50%. Therfore stem cells can also be helpful in the treatment of relatives.

Stem cells regenerate the damaged tissues & organs in any disease.It can also be helpful in the cut organs.

Recent research is going on for the hair transplant, teeth transplant by stem cell therapy.

Currently, researchers can isolate two types of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can develop into any cell in the body, but their harvesting requires the destruction of embryos, which pro-life groups oppose. Adult stem cells avoid this problem, but have more limited abilities. Now it appears that the stem cells from children's lost teeth could provide an intermediate and easily accessible source.

In this brand new research, about to be released later today by the NIH and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, it looks like there's another place to find stem cells that can give rise to bone and neural cells — inside the pulp of baby teeth when they are lost by a child — and that this non-controversial source of stem cells could be banked for future health needs.

Songtao Shi, a pediatric dentist at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland said that "These stem cells seem to grow faster and have more potential to differentiate into other cell types than adult stem cells,“Shi and his colleagues found that baby teeth cells can differentiate into tooth-forming cells called ondontoblasts, and also neural cells and fat cells.

Dr. Songtao Shi had been doing research on the stem cells from bone marrow.

So one day, Dr. Songtao 6-year-old daughter had a tooth that was about to come out, and Dr. Songtao also happened to be trained as a pediatric dentist in addition to doing stem cell research at NIH. His daughter knew this, and instead of going to her mom to remove her first baby tooth, she went to her dentist dad instead. And when her dad looked inside the central-front baby tooth that had just come out, he saw live pulp and a light bulb went off in his head. He thought, I wonder if I could get stem cells from here.

Previous work by Shi in 2000 had already shown that extracted adult wisdom teeth contain stem cells in the pulp at the centre of the tooth. He took it to the lab and found out that indeed there were stem cells there that could be harvested. But to do the real research, he had to wait for her next baby tooth to come out.

History of this Discovery

To isolate the stem cells, Shi extracted the pulp and cultured the cells for several days, then tested the survivors for markers of stem cell activity. About 12 to 20 cells from a typical incisor tooth turn out to be stem cells.

By culturing the cells in various growth factors, Shi could differentiate the cells into tooth-forming cells, fat cells or neural cells. The differentiated cells survived when implanted under the skin and in the brain of immunocompromised mice. Shi also found that the cells promote the growth of bone. He suspects the stem cells may play a role in preparing the way for adult teeth.

He took that tooth to the lab at 10:30 p.m., collected the tissue and confirmed that there were indeed stem cells. And then, because he needed more baby teeth, he waited around like an expectant parent waiting for his daughter’s friends’ baby teeth to come out, and he did research on those too.

For bone, he hypothesized that these stem cells from a baby tooth are the ones that result in the bone that is put down around the new permanent tooth as it comes in. These stem cells give the order to "make bone," so they've got the blueprint in them. He felt that they could be given cues to induce bone formation. As for neural tissue, the stem cells from teeth share a common origin with neural tissue. As their research progresses, Dr. Songtao and his team members hope that stem cells from baby teeth may one day restore nerve cells damaged by diseases like Parkinson’s — one of the most common neurological disorders affecting the elderly. Researchers believe that with the proper cues, they may be able to encourage the stem cells to form nerve-like tissues which may restore cells that make dopamine — a brain chemical that nerve cells need to function properly.

An oral biologist Bjorn Reino Olsen, at Harvard Medical School said that the discovery of stem cells in baby teeth could give a big boost to oral surgery. The cells, once differentiated into odontoblasts, could secrete dentine. This bone-like material could then replace the less biocompatible metal posts that are currently used to anchor implants to the jaw.

Stem cell research is the most promising path to curing many severe diseases and conditions that today can not be cured - Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, juvenile diabetes, spinal cord injury, MS, ALS, and certain forms of cancer and heart disease, to name just a few.

So what's the difference between what umbilical cord blood stem cells can do and what baby tooth stem cells can do?

Right now, researchers know that from umbilical cord blood they can get blood stem cells. They can't get the blood stem cells from baby teeth — but they can get the bone and neural cells.

What would parents have to do to bank their baby's teeth? First, they will have to let the tooth fall out naturally, when it's ready to come out. It's like picking fruit when it’s just right. Too soon won't work, and if they wait too long and the tooth is dangling there for weeks, they can't get stem cells from it either. Front teeth are the best for gathering stem cells.The researchers say that it will be really simple. All a parent will have to do is put the tooth in a vial in a culture medium, milk will do, and keep it wrapped in an ice pack at 40 degrees. Then send it to the center using an overnight delivery service.

But as much as parents want their children to have the best of everything and to have every possible advantage in life, there are still a couple of issues for parents to think about before deciding to bank umbilical cord blood.

First, it isn't cheap. It costs between $1,500 and $2,000, plus about $100 or more per year to store. So cost is a prohibitive factor. Expectant mothers already have too many decisions to make, and that's enough stress for anyone without this as a bonus prize.

Limitations

It's important to understand the difference between the current medical use of cord blood or stem cells from baby teeth and the promise that such cells hold in the future.

If you bank the stem cells from your child's baby teeth now, by the time, God forbid, your child or a sibling might need them, the research will have progressed to a point where those stem cells might be able to make a huge difference in your child's life. And it's so simple to do; it will likely be worth the extra effort.

One of the name of stem cel bank is BioEden Baby Tooth Stem Cell Bank.

My Point of View