Posted on 07/17/2006 12:00:50 PM PDT by Salman
AUSTIN, Texas, July 17 (UPI) -- A Texas company has reportedly started freezing stem cells taken from baby teeth pulp tissue in hopes the cells might some day lead to disease treatments.
BioEden Inc., which opened for business last week, told the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, it's betting the science eventually will catch up with its aspirations.
"We are absolutely confident this will work," Jeff Johnson, president of Austin's BioEden, told the newspaper. "All indications are this is a wonderful source of stem cells."
The company said it expects baby teeth stem cells might eventually be used for bone, teeth nerve cell regeneration and even in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Stem cells have the potential of transforming themselves into any organ or tissue in the human body, with the potential of being able to cure or treat maladies for which there is no current treatment.
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Remember that speech by Ron Reagan at the Democratic Convention? "Imagine having your own private [repository, forget the word] of cells ready for when you need them." What better fulfillment of this than ONE'S OWN cells? Sorry Ron, you'll have to find some other excuse to butcher babies, 'cause science doesn't pick sides in moral debates much as you'd like it to.
Don't be so sure of that! I have every single one of my daughter's lost baby teeth and she's 32. When they came out, I put them in an old jewelry box and forgot about them. I found them, again, after we had moved. LOL
Last I knew, baby teeth come from elementary school students, not babies. I think this is on the same level as donating umbilical cord blood.
I hope these researchers don't try to clone embryos from such material. Are there donor contracts or policies precluding cloning? You never can tell anymore.
Like little white diamonds. Hmmmm...I have to young'uns so I should be able to score enough cash to buy a new car? =D
Very interesting...
Bioeden Hopes To Use Cells From Teeth To Develop Therapies
(CBS) CHICAGO Stem cells derived from human embryos have sparked strong political debate. Now, as CBS 2 Medical Editor Mary Ann Childers reports, a group of researchers say they may have a new source of those cells thats less controversial but just as promising. 9-year-old Summer has four loose teeth. She thinks the next one that comes out is going to the Tooth Fairy. Her mother has other plans. "Wait till the tooth falls out naturally and put it in the little kit and mail it off," Margaret Stark plans. The little kit shes referring to is part of a new process called tooth cell banking. A Texas-based company, Bioeden, claims it can cryogenically harvest and store stem cells from baby teeth. "In 2003, a pediatric dentist named Dr. Songtao Shi discovered that there are certain types of cells in children's primary teeth, which are also called baby teeth, that have the ability to differentiate into other types of cells," Bioedens Robin Remaley said. Bioeden says baby teeth stem cells could potentially be as viable as those from umbilical cords and might someday be used to treat diseases such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers.
"I think it offers the parents the opportunity to save the cells that ultimately could change, alter their child's life maybe now, maybe later, or maybe much later, even as an adult," said pediatric dentist Kyle Raymond. Only the top front six teeth and bottom front six teeth can be used for the cell banking. Bioeden says once your childs tooth falls out, store it in milk, dont freeze it and sent it within 48 hours. When the tooth reaches Bioedens lab, experts extract the cells from the pulp of the tooth and store them indefinitely. For now, Margarets taking her chances and banking Summers next baby tooth. She says the Tooth Fairy will understand. Theres a $595 processing fee and $89 annual storage fee to bank teeth, and there are no guarantees. No one has yet found a way to develop a therapy using stem cells from baby teeth. There is no way to know if storing these cells will truly benefit a child in the future.
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