According to new research undertaken by scientists in Georgia, human beings may one day be able to grow back their own teeth, just like a particular breed of tropical fish, called the cichlid fish. The cichlid fish are found in Lake Malawi and they have an endless supply of new teeth; when one falls out, a new one simply grows into the space.
Professor Todd Streelman, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, worked with hundreds of the fish, studying the genes that help the fish to maintain their teeth, as well as looking at the chemicals that change cells into teeth while the fish are embryonic. He explained ‘We are trying to understand the pathways that mediate the fate of cells toward either dental or sensory development.’ The results of the research show that there may be some possibility of human beings replicating this extraordinary feat.
The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and describes how the cells that make up taste buds and tooth enamel are very similar in early stages of the body’s development. Professor Streelman said that it is not until later that the tooth forms a solid structure, something which suggests that the cells in human beings body could be coaxed into functioning in a similar way. He says ‘The direction our research is taking, at least in terms of human health implications, is to figure out how to coax the epithelium to form one type of structure or the other.’