With any brains at all in the stroke medical world we would be having researchers see if anything here could be useful for stem cells in the brain. But that statement was a hoot, there are no brains in the stroke medical world.
Bye-bye fillings! Alzheimer’s drug lets teeth repair themselves - using stem cells
So
long fillings! Researchers from King’s College London have developed a
method for stimulating the renewal of living stem cells in teeth, using a
drug developed to help with Alzheimer's.
Dentistry
has come a long way since the bad old days when they’d whip out all
your teeth at the slightest excuse. But while that may true, many of us
still have metal or plastic fillings to plug holes in damaged teeth.
Fortunately, researchers from the U.K.’s King’s College London are on the case — and they may have just found a way to banish artificial fillings for good. What they describe in a new research paper, published in the journal Science Reports, is a method for stimulating the renewal of living stem cells in teeth, using a drug developed to help with Alzheimer’s.
To put it another way, it could soon be possible to trigger damaged teeth to repair themselves.
The
human body is able to heal small amounts of dental damage, by
activating the tooth contact stem cells in the tooth’s soft inner core,
known as the pulp. In situations such as tiny cracks or fissures, these
cells are stimulated to differentiate into specific tooth cells. Known
as odontoblasts, these cells can then make new dentine and replace the
area that is damaged.
However,
this natural repair doesn’t work for more significant damage — although
it was enough to teach the King’s College researchers a valuable
lesson.
“We
have studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in this
natural repair and, based on this, have developed a simple method to
enhance the process by overstimulating the stem cells,” lead researcher Paul Sharpe
told Digital Trends. “The result is a more robust repair that can fill
in bigger holes. The process produces a natural repair that maintains
tooth structure.”
The
researchers hope that such a solution will remove the failure rate
associated with artificial methods of plugging holes in teeth.
As
to when this process may be available to the public, Sharpe said that
the current plan is to begin a clinical trial next year. “The research
so far has been generously supported by the Medical Research Council in
the U.K. and we aim to turn to them to support the trials,” he said.
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