Breaking News: Major breakthrough in organ replacement regenerative therapies


Research group headed by Takashi Tsuji demonstrates in regenerating
bioengineered “fully functional organ (tooth)”

Substantial advance in the development of next-generationA research group led by Takashi Tsuji (Professor in the Research Institute for Science
and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, and Director of Organ Technologies Inc.) has
demonstrated in growing new organs in adult mice. Tsuji is a research team member in
“Health Labor Sciences Research Grant: Research on Regenerative Medicine for Clinical
Application (Domain Leader: Professor Akira Yamaguchi of Tokyo Medical and Dental
University)”, and “Priority Domain Research: Bio-engineering (Domain Leader: Professor
Toshio Fukuda of Nagoya University)”. In transplantation experiments using the tooth as a
model, a bioengineered tooth germ develops into a fully functioning bioengineered tooth with
sufficient hardness for mastication and a functional responsiveness to mechanical stress in the
maxillofacial region. The research also provided the results that the nerve fibers that have
re-entered the pulp and periodontal ligament (PDL) tissues of the bioengineered tooth have
proper perceptive potential in response to noxious stimulations such as orthodontic treatment
and pulp stimulation.
This research is expected to substantially advance in the development of “tooth
regenerative therapy”, which have potential as next-generation regenerative therapies for
replacing diseased or damaged teeth with bioengineered teeth. Specifically it will not only
promote “tooth regenerative therapy”, whereby organ germs of bioengineered teeth are
transplanted into the jaw bone to grow “3rd generation tooth”, but is expected to evolve into a
wide variety of organ regenerative technologies for liver, kidney and other organs.
This research outcome was the fruit of joint research with Professor Teruko
Takano-Yamamoto (Division of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Graduate School
of Dentistry, Tohoku University, Japan) and Professor Shohei Kasugai (Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery, Department of Oral Restitution, Division of Oral Health Sciences, Graduate School,
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan). It was announced in an Advance Online
Publication of the US scientific journal “Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.”

“organ replacement regenerative therapies”