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Scientists Grow New Teeth Out of Urine

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Photo Credit: MSNWhatever the reason, you may be missing a tooth. But a typical dental implant costs several thousand dollars — and as much as $10,000 if there are complications or bone grafts are needed. And most dental insurance policies don’t cover the bulk of implant costs.

So, the news from China about new research showing that new teeth can actually be grown is nothing short of astounding, and such a process could remake dentistry as we currently know it. As Medical News Today reports, Chinese scientists have successfully used stem cells to grow solid organs, including teeth, from stem cells. The study, first published in the journal Cell Regeneration, also details just how the organs and teeth were regrown: Using stem cells from . . . urine.

The scientists mixed mouse cells and human cells to create the different types of cells that make up a human tooth: pulp, dentin and enamel. The little creations were physically and structurally “quite similar” to human teeth, the study says, though they are not as strong — yet — as natural human teeth.

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Five Ounce, $375,000 Artificial Hamburger to be Eaten in London Next Week

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Photo Credit: PAThe meal has been made from 3,000 strips of artificial beef, each the size of a grain of rice.

Scientists are hoping the development will meet the growing worldwide demand for beef, lamb, pork and chicken. It is the brainchild of Mark Post, a medical physiologist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

“Right now, we are using 70 per cent of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock. You are going to need alternatives,” said Professor Post. “If we don’t do anything, meat will become a luxury food and will become very expensive.

“Eventually, my vision is that you have a limited herd of donor animals which you keep in stock in the world. You basically kill animals and take all the stem cells from them, so you would still need animals for this technology,” the professor told the Independent on Sunday.

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Adult Stem Cell Discovery May Lead to Regrowth of Human Limbs

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Photo Credit: MICHAEL BODMANN / GETTY IMAGES

Mammals can regenerate the very tips of their fingers and toes after amputation, and now new research shows how stem cells in the nail play a role in that process.

A study in mice, detailed online today (June 12) in the journal Nature, reveals the chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue, and also attracts nerves that promote nail and bone regeneration.

he findings suggest nail stem cells could be used to develop new treatments for amputees, the researchers said. [Inside Life Science: Once Upon a Stem Cell]

In mice and people, regenerating an amputated finger or toe involves regrowing the nail. But whether the amputated portion of the digit can regrow depends on exactly where the amputation occurs: If the stem cells beneath the nail are amputated along with the digit, no regrowth occurs, but if the stem cells remain, regrowth is possible.

To understand why these stem cells are crucial to regeneration, researchers turned to mice. The scientists conducted toe amputations in two groups of mice: one group of normal mice, and one group that was treated with a drug that made them unable to make the signals for new nail cells to develop.

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Scientists Find Way to Turn Stem Cells Into Brain Cells

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Photo Credit: US NewsScientists have discovered an antibody that can turn stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow directly into brain cells, a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurological diseases and injuries.

Richard Lerner, of the Scripps Research Institute in California, says that when a specific antibody is injected into stem cells from bone marrow—which normally turn into white blood cells—the cells can be triggered to turn into brain cells.

“There’s been a lot of research activity where people would like to repair brain and spinal cord injuries,” Lerner says. “With this method, you can go to a person’s own stem cells and turn them into brain cells that can repair nerve injuries.”

Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that the immune system uses to help identify foreign threats to the body. They bind to foreign invaders in the body in order to alert white blood cells to attack harmful bacteria and viruses. There are millions of known antibodies.

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Catholic Church Gives Its Blessing To Stem Cell Research In New Book

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Photo Credit: Fox News

In the past 20 years, stem cell research has been thrust into the medical spotlight as celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve have advocated for it. Also, numerous studies have shown stem cell therapies have successfully treated a plethora of diseases.

And now, with the release of The Healing Cell: How the Greatest Revolution in Medical History Is Changing Your Life, the Catholic Church has given its stamp of approval on adult stem cell research by discussing the many ways these therapies work for the greater good. In fact, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote the book’s introduction, which was co-authored by Dr. Robin Smith and Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, along with Max Gomez.

Stem cell therapy isn’t anything new. Using bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia, which started more than 40 years ago, is essentially the same procedure. Through this process, doctors extract stem cells from the bone marrow and transplant them into the body to replace damaged cells caused by blood and bone marrow cancers. Sometimes cancer patients use autologous cells – cells harvested from their own body – and sometimes they use donated cells from another person’s bone marrow.

Ethical concerns

Smith said when celebrities began speaking out on behalf of embryonic ‘super cells,’ that’s when the real buzz started.

“Embryonic stem cells can become anything, any organ,” Smith said. “You have to destroy the embryo to get the cells, unless it’s from a stillborn fetus. It’s hard to control that in a lab. So that’s a little different from an adult stem cell, which is more mature. They exist in our bodies throughout our lifetime and go on to create just one or two specific things. All these clinical trials are looking at what cells should come from and where, in order to be treated.”

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Facelift Using Stem Cells Causes Bones to Grow Out of Eyes

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A Californian woman has been left with bones growing in her eyes after a botched facelift using stem cell injections.

The gruesome tale involves a woman in her Sixties, who is said to have paid $20,000 for the procedure at a Beverly Hills clinic. But three months later, she was still in pain and noticed her right eye was clicking, according to a report in Scientific American.

The woman complained of a clicking sensation when she tried to open her eye. Surgeons later discovered it was tiny fragments of bone grinding together. When it didn’t improve, she visited another cometic surgeon, Dr Allan Wu, and explained she could not open her right eye without considerable pain and that every time she forced it open, she heard a strange clicking sound.

Dr Wu, of The Morrow Institute in California, told the magazine that when he first heard the woman’s complaint, he wondered if she was imagining things. But after painstaking six-hour surgery, he dug out small chunks of bone from her eyelid and the surrounding tissue. The clicks the woman had heard were the bone fragments grinding against one another.

One theory is the stem cells – which can develop into any tissue in the body – could have reacted with a common dermal filler which contains calcium.

The procedure the woman had is unregulated in America. It involves removing the patient’s stem cells from the blood and injecting them elsewhere in the body.

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