The Tooth Fairy would be impressed.
BioMatRx Inc. is developing technology that uses stem cells to repair and regrow diseased teeth, especially in older patients. The startup, based in Edina, Minnesota, recently won the lifescience category in the annual Minnesota Cup and could win the entire competition next week.
“We take a dead tooth and bring it back to life by delivering stem cells to the tooth,” said CEO and founder Dr. Todd Geisler.
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Using stem cells to regenerate teeth hasn’t captured the public’s attention in the way as regrowing organs or curing Parkinson’s disease. Yet the National Institutes of Health has invested millions of dollars in recent years in this complicated research.
“Building teeth is really important,” an NIH report in 2002 said.
“Regrettably, because many people see teeth as expendable, it has not gained the attention that it deserves, nor have all of the achievements in understanding normal tooth development been marshaled into regenerative strategies.”
“Tooth regeneration is an incredibly complex problem, requiring sophisticated materials science to create molecularly designed materials and the application of nanotechnology principles. This requires a significant interdisciplinary collaboration that includes people who are not being supported but should, such as cell biologists and people working in vascular biology.”
Like any stem cell technology, regenerating teeth presents challenges to scientists. Where should scientists get the stem cells? How will regenerated tissue react with original tissue? Will the technology produce better (and affordable) clinical results than existing dental techniques like root canals or dentures?
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Recent scientific advances have nudged dental regeneration (also called tissue engineering) closer to reality. In 2007, a Japanese team successfully grew teeth in mice using stem cells harvested from mouse embryos. However, the supply of embryonic stem cells is limited, and attracts a good deal of political and religious controversy.
In 2008, researchers published a study in Stem Cell Review that said dental pulp (adult) stem cells (DPSCs) found in the mouth are not only plentiful but easy to manage.
“DPSCs have been demonstrated to answer all of these issues: access to the collection site of these cells is easy and produces very low morbidity; extraction of stem cells from pulp tissue is highly efficient; they have an extensive differentiation ability; and the demonstrated interactivity with biomaterials makes them ideal for tissue reconstruction,” the study concluded. “The easy management of dental pulp stem cells make them feasible for use in clinical trials on human patients.”
And this year, researchers funded by the NIH reported creating biological scaffolds that allowed a mouse’s own stem cells to grow into “tooth-like structures with a more vigorous blood flow.”
BioMatRx hopes to incorporate both of these concepts into its technology. Geisler, an endodontist who trained at the University of Texas, conducted research that showed deliberate bleeding and clotting could restore blood flow to a damaged tooth, and repair its walls and roots.
Along with his brothers Graham and Jamison, Geisler founded BioMatRx in April to focus on older patients. The company has developed a technique in which dentists inject a plasma concentrate containing the DPSC into the tooth.
BioMatRx hopes to sell its ReGendo system in the first quarter of 2011. The $199 kit is considerably cheaper than the $1,000 root canals dentists normally perform, Geisler said. He believes Medicare will pay for the technology.
With 22 million root canals performed annually in the United States, Geisler estimates the domestic market at $22 billion.
Other companies are exploring regenerative technology. Cytomedix Inc. is developing a gel that can spur the body to regrow cells and speed wound care. BTI Biotechnology Institute LLC is working on proteins that can regenerate bones and soft tissues.
Eventually, BioMatRx wants to develop a scaffold system in which the company genetically coaxes the pulp cells into forming odontoblasts — specialized cells that create the main substance of teeth.
Theoretically, the technology, which would require clinical trials and approval from the Food and Drug Administration, could treat deep cavities by forming tissue that automatically fills the holes, Geisler said. The system could spur the body to kill bacteria by reconnecting the dead tooth to the patient’s immune system.
BioMatRx hopes to complete its seed round of financing by the end of this year.
