Once a tooth erupts, the cells that make enamel disappear, so damage from decay or wear is permanent. Researchers at the University of Washington mapped the cell types in developing human teeth to find out what those cells needed to do their job.
Using that map, the team guided human stem cells into ameloblasts, the enamel-making cells, inside lab-grown organoids, which deposited calcium and made enamel proteins, in a dish and implanted in mice. More than 90 percent of adults have some enamel damage with no way for the body to repair it on its own.
The engineered tissue is not yet a filling or a treatment; it is a proof that human ameloblasts can be rebuilt outside the body and made to lay down enamel-like mineral. The same cell map is being used to model enamel diseases in the lab. Turning the organoid tissue into a clinical repair is still years away.
Read the original study
Alghadeer et al., Developmental Cell, 2023 · doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2023.07.013
Lab-grown cells laid down enamel again.
Source
- Alghadeer, A., Hanson-Drury, S., Patni, A. P., Ehnes, D. D., Zhao, Y. T., Li, Z., Phal, A., Vincent, T., Lim, Y. C., O'Day, D., Spurrell, C. H., Gogate, A. A., Zhang, H., Devi, A., Wang, Y., Starita, L., Doherty, D., Glass, I. A., Shendure, J., . . . Ruohola-Baker, H. (2023). Single-cell census of human tooth development enables generation of human enamel. Developmental Cell, 58(20), 2163–2180.e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2023.07.013