Wisdom Teeth Are Indeed Wise

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Wisdom Teeth A Source For Stem Cells?
Researchers in Japan have successfully made stem cells from wisdom teeth, creating an alternative source of pluripotent cells for researching and treating disease and avoiding the ethical problems surrounding embryonic stem cell research.

Scientists at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, which is funded by the government, said they used wisdom teeth that had been frozen for three years after being removed from a 10 year old girl. Lead investigator of the project, Hajime Ogushi, told AFP news agency that their work was significant for two reasons. First, it avoids the ethical problem of using embryonic stem cells, and besides, wisdom teeth are usually thrown away, and second, it is easy to stock wisdom teeth.

In this latest project, Ogushi and colleagues extracted cells from the donated wisdom teeth, inserted three of the genes used by Yamanaka's team, and cultured the cells for just over a month in the lab. When they tested the cells they found them to be stem cells, Ogushi told AFP.

One application would be to use the cells to treat inherited bone disease, but Ogushi explained it will take at least 5 years of development and trials before the idea even gets into the clinical setting.

As to harvesting stem cells from wisdom teeth, Ogushi said there would be no problem with supply, since extraction of wisdom teeth is quite a common dental procedure. Having such a plentiful source of donors means scientists could produce stem cells with a range of genetic codes, increasing the chance that a patient's immune system will not reject the transplanted tissue or organ.

Another application could be that people who have their wisdom teeth out could arrange for them to be stored for future use as a source of stem cells already tailored to their own genetic code.

Editors Note: Assuming that what scientists predict will come true (i.e. that one day we'll be able to use stem cells to regrow human body parts), I look forward to the day when people will be able to say with a straight face that, "Getting a new arm is like pulling teeth".