Primary teeth contain a rich supply of stem cells in their dental pulp that remain vital after a child loses a tooth, said researchers in an article published online April 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research extracted pulp from children’s exfoliated incisors and discovered that 12 to 20 stem cells from each tooth had the ability to colonize and grow in culture. They also found that the stem cells grow rapidly and have the potential to form specialized dentin, bone and neuronal cells. They named these special cells Stem cells from Human Exfoliated Deciduous teeth, or SHED.
"We found that the SHED behaved much differently than dental pulp stem cells from permanent teeth," said Dr. Masako Miura, lead author of the study. "These cells exhibited an ability to grow much faster and doubled their populations in culture at a greater rate, suggesting SHED may be in a more immature state than adult stem cells."
Researchers said further study of this easily accessible source of stem cells could lead to new advances in treating damaged teeth, inducing bone regeneration and treating neural injury and disease.
