Humanlike 'Teeth' Have Been Grown in Mini Pigs (technologyreview.com) 27
Scientists have grown tooth-like structures using a combination of pig and human cells, marking a step toward potential alternatives to dental implants, researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine reported.
The team, led by Pamela Yelick and Weibo Zhang, cultivated the structures by seeding cells into pig tooth scaffolds and implanting them in mini pigs' jaws. After two months, the bioengineered teeth developed hard tissue layers similar to natural teeth, including dentin and cementum. While not yet fully formed teeth, the structures could eventually lead to living replacements for lost teeth, addressing limitations of current titanium implants.
The team, led by Pamela Yelick and Weibo Zhang, cultivated the structures by seeding cells into pig tooth scaffolds and implanting them in mini pigs' jaws. After two months, the bioengineered teeth developed hard tissue layers similar to natural teeth, including dentin and cementum. While not yet fully formed teeth, the structures could eventually lead to living replacements for lost teeth, addressing limitations of current titanium implants.
ManBearPig Was Just A Joke, Guys (Score:1)
Come on now, just stop.
They should stop making fun of (Score:3, Funny)
...Eric Trump like that.
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The same arguments about generally comparable body size and lots of useful veterinary knowledgeapply equally well. Pigs have probably had more work already done on their interactions with human immunology, making them a preferred target. But a decade of work by a medium-size research department could probably address most of that.
How is the dental health of the Saudi royal family? Or, for that matter, the imams supervis
Why only 2 sets? (Score:1)
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Re: Why only 2 sets? (Score:2)
Animals that continually replace their teeth (sharks* for example) do so by growing replacements. And moving them into place as the adult teeth become old and damaged. My guess us that the ability of a tooth to self repair is incompatible with its hardness.
*Also law firms hiring young junior partners.
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If sharks ability of a tooth to self repair is not incompatible with its hardness why is humans?
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If sharks ability of a tooth to self repair is not incompatible with its hardness why is humans?
They don't self repair; They replace. Teeth are grown in the bone. Here's a picture of them exposed in the skull of a child: https://i.sstatic.net/35njF.jp... [sstatic.net]
Humans would need to continuously grow additional teeth and continuously replace existing teeth, which isn't very conducive to how we eat and live. But why don't we? Evolution.
However, the idea of using lab grown teeth implanted in our jaws could be a replacement for existing dental implants.
Re: Why only 2 sets? (Score:2)
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Depending on what you eat and how you use your teeth you might be toothless in your early 20s, as some neolithic fishermen in Japan were in a paper I was recently reading. They fished by holding leather straps in their teeth which wore away their teeth very quickly.
There are many other examples of people from harder times in history or pre-history living near food sources that were extremily hard on their teeth, so they would be lost quite early in life, in their teens even. Eventually, if they stayed in th
Re: Why only 2 sets? (Score:2)
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There are people researching growth of a third set of teeth.
"Takahashi claims, should be further encouraged by the fact that we already come pre-loaded with the starting point. He said that his previous research shows that humans have the start of a third set of teeth already embedded in our mouths."
https://apicciano.commons.gc.c... [cuny.edu]
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An awful lot can be learned about (complex) biological systems by examining examples when it goes wrong. And since you're generally doing this in a somewhat therapeutic setting the ethical questions are generally easier to argue in favour of attempting intervention.
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If they are so easy to do, and they overcharge, why don't you start a business that does it for less?
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Regulatory capture and liability. You can't get insurance if you aren't accredited, and you can't get accredited without passing through the traditional system that probably saddles you with so much debt you have to charge the high prices.
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It's true, any industry that can bill insurance is a scam. If the insurance has a maximum cost for a procedure, believe you me, they will be charging the maximum--or more, if they can get away with it. Prices of the actual procedure get inflated 200-300% this way, although that's hard to prove. All I know is that my dentist has done expensive procedures at half price when I didn't have insurance and I doubt she was losing money.
But, what are you gonna do?
Next step (Score:2)
Grow it in place so there's no full-tooth implant procedure. In fact, maybe even work on having my existing teeth regenerate starting with what's already there.
It'd be nice to have the teeth of a 20-something again, with full biting surfaces and thick enamel.
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Some animals have continuously growing teeth, like rodents. Sharks were mentioned elsewhere, they keep growing new ones to replace the old.
I think with humans doing 'something' to trigger a new tooth to grow and replace the old one, maybe even a new whole set, would be likely.
A third set, basically. If done around 50, should last the rest of people's lives, assuming no damage otherwise, and no sudden extreme life extensions.
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Not untrue, but significantly incorrect and misleadingly so.
Rodents have some teeth that grow continually from the same set of roots, with an internal structure that can transport an otherwise unchanging structure to the wearing face which then auto-sharpens them. The tooth cross section does not change shape or size from the root structure to the wear surface.
Sharks o
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I'm going to note that I didn't suggest implementing either continuously growing teeth or continuous tooth replacement for humans. I just listed two known options for maintaining teeth in high wear environments.
In the wonderful world of SF, this would be when you "go in for your rejuvenation treatments". You might get new joint surfaces. at the same time. Memory flush? Ah ... getting less attractive. Skin rejuvenation - meaning you lose your scars (and the memories that go with them?) and your tattoos?
That's a possibility, though I'd trend away from memory flushes and such. Our brains do enough of that on their own.
Lots of complications there. Maybe ... growing your own set of spare teeth (32 variants for a normal jaw) to a certain level of completeness in an internal structure, and transplanting a tooth "bud" from your internal store into the appropriate part of the jaw, along with something to trigger the osteoblasts (and osteoclasts) in the jaw to grow the correct shape for supporting the roots.
This is about what I was suggesting, actually. Though I was trying to leave the actual tech vauge - The dentist does something, which can include implanting a tooth "bud" from somewh
I'd Feel Guilty (Score:2)
–eating bacon with these teeth.
Horrifying (Score:2)
You think they're going to anaestherize the pigs through any of the dental horror?
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Of course, so they don't thrash making dental work impossible.
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You thought the pigs wouldn't be "sacrificed"?