Japanese scientists have discovered that dental pulp from the wisdom teeth can be used as a source of therapeutic stem cells. This specific stem cell is known as mesenchymal stem cell. It is a totipotent stem cell which can develop in to other body tissues such as bone, cartilage and fat.
This cell differs from the embroyonic stem cells in the fact that they can be created with out the need of an embryo. But, such cells can’t develop in to different type of cells in the body.
Wisdom teeth are notorious for causing problems during eruption. Often they are extracted and thrown away with out realizing their importance.
The use of embroyonic stem cells has been controversial as the embryo had to be destroyed to obtain the stem cells. Since embryo is also considered life by many, this idea was opposed. In year 2001, U.S Government restricted public funding to some embroyonic stem cells lines thus interrupting the work of the U.S scientists.
However, scientists from Kyoto University (Japan) inserted genes from tails of mice and converted them in to ESC (embroyonic stem cells).
The use of stem cells from wisdom teeth is preferred over the ones taken from the bone marrow. This is because the stem cells from the wisdom teeth are easily stored and preserved. They also show greater activity than the cells from bone marrow.
The researchers involved with this project have started accepting wisdom tooth donation for storage in banks. This can possibly benefit the donor in the future as they have a reservoir of their stem cells which they can access in the future when they need to treat some ailment.
Another researcher named Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University who was not part of this dental study issued a statement favoring the use of stem cells from wisdom teeth to produce regerative drugs for treatment of many ailments.
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