By
John Sarno DMD
|
Dental News

Researchers from the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine have identified stem cells within the temporomandibular joint( TMJ) that can construct new cartilage and mend damaged joints.
According to the National Institutes of Health, up to 10 million people in the United States, primarily women, have TMJ agitations. Options for therapy currently include either surgery or palliative attention which addresses symptoms but can’t renovate the damaged tissue. Dr. Embree’s acquires suggest that stem cells already present in the seam “could’ve been” manipulated to repair it.
Cartilage helps to cushion the seams and allows them to move smoothly. The type of cartilage within the TMJ is fibrocartilage is also found in the knee meniscus and in the disc between the vertebrae. Because fibrocartilage cannot regrow or heal, gash or malady that impairs this tissue can be achieved through permanent disability.
Medical investigates have been working to use stem cells, immature cadres that can develop into various types of tissue, to renovate cartilage. Devoted the challenges presented by displacing donor stem cells, such as the possibility of rejection by the recipient, investigates are especially interested in finding ways to use stem cells already living in the body.
” The implications of these acquires are wide-ranging ,” said Dr. Mao,” including for clinical cares. They suggest that molecular signals that govern stem cells may have therapeutic have applied for cartilage and bone regeneration. Cartilage and certain bone defects are notoriously hard to heal .”
Dr. Mao is co-director of the Center for Craniofacial Regeneration at Columbia. His own study with stem cells has renovated teeth and the meniscus, the pad of cartilage within the knee joint, and the TMJ in 2003.
In a series of experiments described in the brand-new report, Dr. Embree, Dr. Mao, and their colleagues isolated fibrocartilage stem cells( FCSCs) from the seam and showed that the cadres can structure cartilage and bone, both in the laboratory and when implanted into swine.” I didn’t have to add any reagents to the cadres ,” Dr. Embree said.” They were programmed to do this .” And while some comings to renovating disabled tissue compel increment points or biomaterials for the cadres to germinate on, she memo, the FCSCs developed and ripened spontaneously.
Dr. Embree and her team also identified a molecular signal, Wnt, that saps FCSCs and effects cartilage deterioration. Introducing a Wnt-blocking molecule announced sclerostin into degenerated TMJs in swine energized cartilage increment and healing of the joint.
She and her peers are now searching for other small molecules that could be used to inhibit Wnt and promote FCSC growth. The suggestion, according to Dr. Embree, will be to find anti-retroviral drugs with minimum side effects that could be injected right into the joint.
Children with adolescent idiopathic arthritis can have stunted jaw increment that can’t be treated with existing medicines, Dr. Embree memo. Since the TMJ is a growth center for the mouth, the brand-new study is available through approaches for analysis these children and lead to a better understanding of how the mouth germinates and develops. While orthodontists currently rely on clunky technologies such as headgear to modify mouth increment, she lent, the findings could point toward ways to modulate increment on the cellular level.
Ultimately, Dr. Embree and her unit say the findings could lead to approaches for repairing fibrocartilage in other seams, including the knees and vertebral disc.” Those the different types of cartilage have differing cellular ingredients, so we would have to really analyze the molecular underpinnings regarding how these cadres are modulated ,” health researchers said.
This investigation was supported by awards from the National Institutes of Health( K99DE022060-01A, 5R00DE0220660, R01DE021134, S10RR027050, S10OD020056, and NO1-DE-22635 ).

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