A smart use for wisdom teeth: Making stem cells

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A smart use for wisdom teeth: Making stem cells

Appearing in the Sept. 17 JBC

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/asfb-asu091010.php

For most people, wisdom teeth are not much more than an annoyance that

eventually needs to be removed. However, a new study appearing in the September

17 Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that wisdom teeth contain a valuable

reservoir of tissue for the creation of stem cells; thus, everyone might be

carrying around his or her own personal stem-cell repository should he or she

ever need some.

Groundbreaking research back in 2006 revealed that inducing the activity of four

genes in adult cells could " reprogram " them back into a stem-cell-like state;

biologically, these induced-pluripotent stem cells are virtually identical to

embryonic stem cells, opening up a new potential avenue for stem-cell therapy

whereby patients could be treated with their own stem cells.

However, despite their promise, making iPS cells is not easy; the reprogramming

efficiencies are very low and vary among the cells that can be used for iPS

generation and thus require good amount of " starter " cells - which might involve

difficult extraction from body tissue (unfortunately skin cells, the easiest to

acquire, show very low reprogramming efficiency).

Now, a team of scientists at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial

Science and Technology may have found an ideal source: third molars, commonly

known as wisdom teeth.

The soft pulp inside of teeth contains a population of cells known as

mesenchymal stromal cells that are similar to cells found in bone marrow, a

common stem-cell source. However, unlike bone marrow, tooth pulp is more easily

obtained, especially in wisdom teeth, which most individuals have removed

anyway.

The researchers, led by Hajime Ohgushi, collected tooth samples from three

donors and managed to generate a series of iPS cell lines following the similar

procedure of activating three key genes (however, in another beneficial change

they did not have activate the c-MYC gene which might lead the cells to become

cancerous).

The different cell lines displayed varying degrees of robustness but in some

cases proliferated quite well, up to 100 times more efficiently than typical

skin-cell-derived iPS cells. The molar-derived cells also could differentiate

into many other cell types including beating cardiomyocytes (see an attached

movie), as expected.

The presence of a supply of MSCs in wisdom teeth could have meaningful

therapeutic ramifications. As noted by the researchers and others, wisdom tooth

extraction is a common medical procedure in developed nations and, thus, creates

a perfect opportunity to remove biological material in a sterilized setting; the

teeth subsequently can be frozen and stored for many years until needed. In the

meantime, that also provides time for researchers to better understand the

details of iPS creation to further increase the efficiency for clinical use.

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From the JBC article: " Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Third

Molar Mesenchymal Stromal Cells " by Yasuaki Oda, Yasuhide Yoshimura, Hiroe

Ohnishi, Mika Tadokoro, Yoshihiro Katsube, Mari Sasao, Yoko Kubo, Koji Hattori,

Shigeru Saito, Katsuhisa Horimoto, Shunsuke Yuba and Hajime Ohgushi

Article Link: http://www.jbc.org/content/285/38/29270

Corresponding Author: Hajime Ohgushi, Health Research Institute, National

Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Amagasaki City, Japan

TEL:81-6-6494-7806, E-mail: hajime-ohgushi@...

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