Scientists can use stem cells from wisdom teeth

[DavidJr74]

http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news...l.php?id=1442#

Was not aware of this today.

The more you know.

[GermanBB]

interesting

[Heisman2]

There's already been a lot of work showing you can take many cell types and transform them into induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC's). I'm assuming that is what was done with the wisdom teeth. IPSC's are similar to embryonic stem cells although not completely identical. Still a cool link!

[TheHybrid]

Crazy Japanese people... What I don't understand is, why wisdom teeth? It's already been demonstrated that skin cells can be turned into IPS cells. Japanese people just always doing crazy ****.

[DavidJr74]

Crazy Japanese people... What I don't understand is, why wisdom teeth? It's already been demonstrated that skin cells can be turned into IPS cells. Japanese people just always doing crazy ****.

Readily available supply. Plus you could have your saved for the future so whatever organ you need the wisdom teeth already has a good amount of your genetic code.

[Heisman2]

Crazy Japanese people... What I don't understand is, why wisdom teeth? It's already been demonstrated that skin cells can be turned into IPS cells. Japanese people just always doing crazy ****.

This field started to explode in 2006, I believe. It's quite possible they started working on this prior to the knowing about the more recent papers that have come out. I don't know anything about wisdom teeth, lol, so there may be other advantages too although I agree it seems like it would be unnecessary relative to using skin.

Readily available supply. Plus you could have your saved for the future so whatever organ you need the wisdom teeth already has a good amount of your genetic code.

You have more skin than wisdom teeth! That is an interesting idea though... I could envision a company acquiring a person's stem cells (with consent) and from there creating a repository of other cell types (by transforming them into other cell types) and then having them stored. Then if they are ever needed due to a medical emergency they could be contacted and have them shipped first class and be available by the next day for final culturing for whatever purpose necessary. Not saying I think this will happen but I think it's a cool idea!