Japanese scientists said today they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using embryos.
Researchers at the government-backed National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology said they created stem cells of the type found in human embryos using the removed wisdom teeth of a 10-year-old girl.
'This is significant in two ways,' team leader Hajime Ogushi said. 'One is that we can avoid the ethical issues of stem cells because wisdom teeth are destined to be thrown away anyway.'
'Also, we used teeth that had been extracted three years ago and had been preserved in a freezer. That means that it is easy for us to stock this source of stem cells.'
The announcement follows the groundbreaking discovery by US and Japanese scientists last year that they could produce stem cells from skin, a finding that was hailed by the Vatican and US President George W Bush.
Research involving embryonic stem cells - which can develop into various organs or nerves - is seen as having the potential to save lives by helping find cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
But studies on embryos are strongly opposed by religious conservatives, who argue that such research destroys human life, albeit at its earliest stage of development.
In the new research, cells were extracted from the wisdom teeth and developed for about 35 days.
The researchers then tested them and found that they were stem cells, which can develop into various other kinds of human cells.
As with last year's skin cell discovery, the Japanese researchers said it would take time to put the use of wisdom teeth into practical use.
Mr Hajime estimated it would take at least five years to put the method into clinical use such as trial treatments of congenital bone disease.
