Something to chew on (Image: Takashi Tsuji, Tokyo University of Science)

It may be time to redefine the concept of false teeth. A tooth grown from embryonic cells has been successfully transplanted into the jaw of a mouse. The transplant is a step towards providing artificial replacements for donor organs that are in short supply.

To create the tooth, Takashi Tsuji at Tokyo University of Science in Japan and colleagues took cells destined to become teeth from mouse embryos. The cells were implanted into an adult mouse, beneath a membrane that surrounds the kidney.

Two months later, the cells had developed into a molar complete with a periodontal ligament – fibres that attach the tooth to bone. The team extracted the tooth and implanted it into the jawbone of another mouse. Within 30 days, blood vessels and nerves surrounded the transplant which functioned as if it were a native tooth.


Xiu-Ping Wang at Harvard School of Dental Medicine says the work is “very elegant”. She adds that researchers may be able to recreate the results using adult stem cells or cells found in wisdom teeth.

Growing teeth atop a kidney currently prevents this approach from being practical for human tooth replacement, says Paul Sharpe at King’s College London. The next big advance will come when the budding tooth cells can be cultivated outside the body, he says.

Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021531