Researchers Aim To Shed Light On Lab-Grown Teeth, Tissue Regeneration

The University of California – San Francisco states that “one of the enduring puzzles for stem cell researchers” is how these cells “know when it’s time for them to expand in numbers and transform into mature, adult cells in order to renew injured or aging tissue.” In an attempt to understand this “decision-making process,” the release states researchers are studying the front teeth of mice to identify the signals that trigger the teeth to continuously grow. UC San Francisco’s Ophir Klein, MD, PhD, a professor of orofacial sciences in UCSF’s School of Dentistry, explained, “Our lab’s objective is to learn the rules that let mouse incisors grow continuously to help us one day grow teeth in the lab, but also to help us identify general principles that could enable us to understand the processes of tissue renewal much more broadly.” A study published in Cell Stem Cell discusses some of their findings into this process.