Pufferfish study has teeth for dental regeneration

Human teeth can be engineered to regenerate – thanks to the world’s most poisonous fish.

British scientists have been studying the pufferfish beak and have found it is uniquely resilient, generating new teeth every two weeks for the animal’s lifetime.

They believe the beak provides a model for creating a system of continuous tooth replacement in humans.

Project leader, Dr Gareth Fraser, of the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield said: ‘The pufferfish beak is completely unique. The main thing is we can use it to identify the gene network for tooth replacement. We can see how nature makes new teeth and about the genes that govern that process.’

Last year Scientists in Japan created teeth by using mouse stem cells and successfully transplanted them into mice.

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