Mice Molars Grown From Stem Cells Form Fully Functional, Transplantable Teeth
What a week for stem cell-related surgeries. Not seven days ago surgeons in Europe announced the successful transplantation of the world's first lab-grown organ--a trachea--grown from a patient's own stem cells, and now Japanese researchers are saying they've grown and successfully transplanted new stem-cell derived teeth in mice. Alright, so the mouse news may be somewhat dwarfed by the human trachea, but it's no less groundbreaking from a "future of medicine" standpoint. In both cases, scientists extracted cells from the body, grew body parts outside of the body, and then put those body parts into the body. And the bodies, for their part, seem unbothered by the switch. Related ArticlesUsing a Lab-Grown Trachea, Surgeons Conduct the World's First Synthetic Organ TransplantBy Stimulating Stem Cells, Bioactive Nanogel Regenerates Cartilage in JointsMIT's New Synthetic Material Allows Stem Cells to Grow Without Foreign CatalystsTagsScience, Clay Dillow, health, lab-grown organs, mice, stem...