Lifestyle

Dental stem cells could take bite out of illnesses

By Suzanne Laurent
Staff writer
Published: July 11, 2008

METHUEN — The tooth fairy may be looking for a new line of work in the not-so-distant future.

Scientists now are able to extract stem cells from dental pulp and are currently researching the use of these cells for illnesses such as muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

This means that parents can choose to bank their children's teeth in a laboratory — rather than surrendering them to the tooth fairy — for safe-keeping in case the stem cells are needed in the future.

Stem cells have the unique ability to be grown and transformed into specialized cells to create tissues, organs and systems in the body. They have been used to treat disease and for regenerative treatments since first discovered in bone marrow in 1963.

Stem cells were discovered in teeth in 2003 at the National Institutes of Health and awareness of the capability of using teeth this way is just beginning to spread.

Dr. Michael Chow, a pediatric dentist with offices in Methuen and Nashua, N.H., said he became interested in the possibility of saving teeth for stem cells about two years ago when he read about it in a dental journal.

"I went to the Yankee Dental Conference in Boston this year and got more insight into the process and the research being done," Chow said. "It's much like banking your own blood for future surgery."

Chow's clients can choose to have him send their children's baby teeth to the National Dental Pulp Laboratory Inc., a division of the New England Cryogenic Center in Newton, where the stem cells are extracted and frozen at 301 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Wisdom teeth and teeth removed to make room for braces also can be stored.

Chow does not charge to ship the teeth, nor does the laboratory charge dentists for the kits the teeth are shipped in. Parents, however, must pay the lab $795 for processing up to four teeth and an additional $125 annually to store the stem cells.

Chow keeps a poster in his waiting room to inform people of the option.

"If a parent is interested, I'll explain the procedure to them," he said, noting that it is noninvasive. The child does need to lose the tooth in his office, however, because the pulp is living tissue and has to be put immediately into a bottle that contains a preservative.

"They come in just when it's about to fall out," Chow said.

After the tooth is removed, it goes into the bottle that is placed into a cold pack and shipped to the laboratory. There, the tooth is cracked open and the pulp is removed. The stem cells extracted from the pulp are preserved in cryogenic freezers.

"These type of cells — called mesenchymal cells — are actively being studied in over 40 clinical trials in the United States," said Dr. David Matzilevich, chief scientific officer at New England Cryogenic.

Matzilevich said that the first stem cells were found in bone marrow more than 40 years ago and that stem cells were discovered in umbilical cord blood 30 years ago.

"The first cord-blood transplant was done 20 years ago to treat a child in France with Franconi's anemia (a blood disorder)," he said. "It is now used as for approximately 80 disorders. This is how fast the uses of cord blood have expanded."

Matzilevich sees the same advancement evolving with dental pulp stem cells.

"A group in Italy has used these cells to grow the head of a femur (thigh bone)," he said. "It has also been used for jaw enhancement and for dental implants to grow new bone to help anchor the tooth into the jawbone."

While cord blood stem cells are used for blood disorders, the type of stem cells retrieved from dental pulp are believed to have the potential to repair muscle and cardiac tissue after a heart attack, and generate bone, cartilage, nerve, brain and fat tissue.

"The regeneration of bones and cartilage and tissue regeneration are most promising," said Dr. Todd Flower, director of the National Dental Pulp Laboratory.

"Eventually there is the potential to treat spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's Disease. The great thing is that there is no controversy surrounding it."

The cells from dental pulp are adult stem cells, unlike the embryonic ones that have raised moral questions and much controversy.

"There will be no clinical relevance for embryonic cells in years to come," Matzilevich said.

"They can cause teratomas (a type of tumor) and other types of cancers. They are genetically unstable and difficult to grow."

Banking of stem cells from tooth pulp is not just for children. Adults also can donate their teeth if they are removed during dental work.

"The beauty is that there is no graph rejection if the person's own stem cells are used," Matzilevich said.

But kids do have an edge.

"There are 20 baby teeth," Chow said. "You have 20 chances."