Baby Teeth Found to Be Rich Source of Stem Cells

Scientists have discovered that baby teeth, which children begin losing when they are six years old, contain a rich supply of stem cells in their dental pulp. Their findings were reported in the April 21, 2003, online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery was made by a Dr. Songtao Shi, a scientist at the US National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), who noticed tissue in an exfoliated baby tooth of his six-year-old daughter. He placed the tooth in a liquid medium used to culture cells and extracted the dental pulp. Soon after, he isolated living stem cells from the tissue, which led to the collection of more exfoliated teeth from children. He and his colleagues launched a round of studies to determine whether the cells would grow well in culture. They discovered that about 12-20 stem cells from each tooth had the ability to colonize and grow in culture.

Dr. Shi named the cells SHED (stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth), to differentiate SHED from stem cells in adult tissues such as bone or brain. The researchers say the cells grow rapidly in culture and with prompting have the potential to induce the formation of specialized dentin, bone, and neuronal cells. If follow-up studies extend initial findings, SHED may be an important and easily accessible source of stem cells to repair damaged teeth, induce regeneration of bone, and treat neural injury or disease.

"Doctors have successfully harvested stem cells from umbilical cord blood for years,” said Dr. Shi. "Our finding is similar in some ways, in that the stem cells in the tooth are likely latent remnants of an early developmental process.”




Related Links:
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research