SYDNEY — For the first time researchers have been able to induce the growth of replacement teeth in mammals. Unlike other vertebrates, mammals normally lose the ability after they replace their milk teeth in infancy. ‘Our results may have implications for organ regeneration and bioengineering of teeth and the understanding of the genetic basis of the evolution of teeth,’ the authors said in a paper published in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was conducted at the University of Helsinki, Finland, as well as in Berlin and Kyoto, using mouse tissue. Most vertebrates – famously including sharks – have continuous tooth generation, meaning that lost teeth are replaced with new teeth as needed. Somewhere in their evolution mammals, including humans, lost this capacity, with the sole dental replacement being permanent teeth for milk teeth. ‘Intriguingly, a trend in mammalian evolution has been a reduction of number and renewal of teeth, concomitant with the evolution of progressively more complex…teeth,’ the researchers said. Irma Sesloff, from the University of Helsinki, and fellow researchers stimulated a molecular trigger, called the Wnt pathway, in tooth buds extracted from mouse embryos. Tooth buds […]