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Dental Tribune Nordic Edition | 3/201502 By DTI OSLO, Norway: Findings from the University of Oslo give hope to indi- viduals suffering from impaired vi- sionduetostemcelldeficiencyofthe cornea. Using cells harvested from the patient’s mouth, researchers have been able to grow new tissue that,oncetransplantedintothedam- aged eye, helps to restore sight and eliminatepainfromthecornea. In individuals with limbal stem cell deficiency, the stem cells can- not renew the cornea’s outermost layer. Instead, other cells grow over the cornea, resulting in the cornea becoming fully or partially cov- ered. In addition, some patients experience severe pain, which is due to the high number of nerve fibres in the area. For the last ten years, Dr Tor PaaskeUtheim,anophthalmologist and research associate at the Uni- versityofOslo,hasbeenconducting researchonutilisingstemcellsfrom the mouth in order to help patients suffering from limbal stem cell de- ficiency. So far, almost 250 people with the condition have undergone treatment, involving transplanta- tion of stem cells grown from their ownmouthcells. Utheim’sresearchobjectivesfur- ther focused on optimising the storage and transport potential of thetreatment.Becausethedisorder most often affects people living in developing countries, it is espe- ciallyimportantthatextractedcells can be easily kept and transported, he explained. As a result, the clini- cian developed a special storage technology that enables the cul- tured tissue to be transported in a small custom-made plastic con- tainer. According to Utheim, the systemallowsforacompletelynew level of flexibility. “Today, cells from the mouth are cultured for use in the treatment of blindness in only a few specialized centers in the world. By identifying the optimal conditions for storing andtransportingtheculturedtissue, we would allow for the treatment to be made available worldwide, and not just close to the cell culture cen- ters,”addedRakibulIslam,aPhDstu- dentfromUtheim’sresearchgroup. Islam’s PhD project at the Depart- mentofOralBiologyshowed,among otherresults,thatculturedstemcells retaintheirquintessentialproperties best between 12 and 16 °C. He further foundthatcertainareasofthemouth are better suited to use in regenera- tive medicine than others are. “Our results show that the location from whichthemucosaltissueisharvested hasastrikingimpactonthequalityof theculturedtissue,”Islamsaid. The group’s findings illustrate the benefits of interdisciplinary efforts inresearch,inthiscasebetweenden- tists and ophthalmologists. Their results will help to simplify and streamline the clinical procedures, and therefore make the treatment moreaccessiblethanitistoday,Islam concluded. The results of his PhD studyhavenotyetbeenpublished. Limbalstemcelldeficiencycanbe causedbyfactorssuchasultraviolet radiation, chemical burns, serious infections like trachoma, and vari- ous other diseases, some of which are heritable. The exact number of people affected by the disorder is unknown, but in India alone there are an estimated 1.5 million people sufferingfromthecondition. A summary of Utheim’s findings was published in the June issue of the STEM CELLS journal in an article titled “Transplantation of cultured oralmucosalepithelialcellsfortreat- inglimbalstemcelldeficiency—Cur- rentstatusandfutureperspectives”. WORLD NEWS IMPRINT PUBLISHER: Torsten OEMUS MANAGINGEDITORDTNORDICEDITION: Kristin HÜBNER k.huebner@dental-tribune.com CLINICALEDITOR: Magda WOJTKIEWICZ ONLINEEDITOR: Claudia DUSCHEK ASSISTANTEDITORS: Anne FAULMANN COPYEDITORS: Sabrina RAAFF, Hans MOTSCHMANN PRESIDENT/CEO: Torsten OEMUS CFO/COO: Dan WUNDERLICH MEDIASALESMANAGERS: Matthias DIESSNER Peter WITTECZEK Maria KAISER Melissa BROWN Weridiana MAGESWKI Hélène CARPENTIER Antje KAHNT MARKETING&SALESSERVICES: Nicole ANDRAE ACCOUNTING: Karen HAMATSCHEK BUSINESSDEVELOPMENT: Claudia SALWICZEK EXECUTIVEPRODUCER: Gernot MEYER ADPRODUCTION: Marius MEZGER DESIGNER: Franziska DACHSEL, Matthias ABICHT INTERNATIONALEDITORIALBOARD: Dr Nasser Barghi, Ceramics, USA Dr Karl Behr, Endodontics, Germany Dr George Freedman, Esthetics, Canada Dr Howard Glazer, Cariology, USA Prof.DrI.Krejci,ConservativeDentistry,Switzerland Dr Edward Lynch, Restorative, Ireland Dr Ziv Mazor, Implantology, Israel Prof. Dr Georg Meyer, Restorative, Germany Prof. Dr Rudolph Slavicek, Function, Austria Dr Marius Steigmann, Implantology, Germany PublishedbyDTI DENTALTRIBUNEINTERNATIONAL Holbeinstr. 29, 04229, Leipzig, Germany Tel.: +49 341 48474-302 Fax: +49 341 48474-173 info@dental-tribune.com www.dental-tribune.com RegionalOffices: UNITEDKINGDOM BairdHouse,4th Floor,15–17St.CrossStreet London EC1N 8UW www.dental-tribune.co.uk info@dental-tribune.com DTASIAPACIFICLTD. c/o Yonto Risio Communications Ltd, 20A, Harvard Commercial Building, 105–111 Thomson Road, Wanchai Hong Kong Tel.: +852 3113 6177 Fax: +852 3113 6199 DENTALTRIBUNEAMERICA,LLC 116 West 23rd Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10001, USA Tel.: +1 212 244 7181 Fax: +1 212 224 7185 ©2015,DentalTribuneInternationalGmbH All rights reserved. Dental Tribune makes every effort to report clinical information and manufac- turer’sproductnewsaccurately,butcannotassume responsibility for the validity of product claims, or for typographical errors. The publishers also do not assume responsibility for product names or claims,orstatementsmadebyadvertisers.Opinions expressed by authors are their own and may not reflect those of DentalTribune International. Scan this code to subscribe ourweeklyDentalTribuneNordic e-newsletter. Oral cells help to cure blindness By DTI UPPSALA, Sweden: Tooth enamel is the hardest substance produced by the human body. Since enamel is one of the four major tissues that make up the teeth and gives them their distinctive shiny white ap- pearance,itcomesasasurprisethat astudyhasfoundthatenamelmost likely originated from an entirely different part of the body: the skin. Unlike humans, who only have teeth in the mouth, certain fish species have little tooth-like scales on the outer surface of the body. In the study, researchers from Upp- sala University in Sweden and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontol- ogy and Paleoanthropology in Bei- jing in China analysed Lepisosteus, an ancient gar fish from North America whose scales are covered with an enamel-like tissue called ganoine. They found genes for two of the three unique matrix proteins of enamel expressed in the genes of Lepisosteus’sskin,andthisstrongly suggests that ganoine is a form of enamel. In order to determine where the enamel first origi- nated—the mouth or the skin— the researchers then investigated the dermal denticles on two fos- sil fishes: Psarolepis from China and Andreolepis from Sweden. In Psarolepis,thescalesandthedenti- cles of the face are covered with enamel, but there is no enamel on the teeth; in Andreolepis, only the scales bear enamel. Their findings suggest that enamel in fact first evolved in the skin. Dr Per Ahlberg, Professor of Evolutionary Organismal Biology at Uppsala University, explained: “Psarolepis and Andreolepis are among the earliest bony fishes, so we believe that their lack of tooth enamel is primitive and not a spe- cialisation. It seems that enamel originatedintheskin,wherewecall it ganoine, and only colonised the teeth at a later point.” The study is the first to combine novel palaeontological and ge- nomic data in a single analysis to explore tissue evolution. The re- sults have been published online on 23 September in the Nature journal in an article titled “New genomic and fossil data illuminate the origin of enamel”. Toothenamelfirstevolvedinskin Tor Paaske Utheim (left) and Rakibul Islam at the Institute for Oral Biology. Their research aims at curing certain kinds of blindness in a global context. According to the researchers, mostparticipantsbelievedthatthe dental workforce has the relevant professionals to implement med- ical screening. Dental hygienists or dental nurses were considered to be the most suitable group of professionals for the performance of medical screening in dental set- tings, as medical questions could form a natural part of hygienists’ health conversations with their patients. However,themajorityofpartici- pants expressed their concern that there was insufficient expertise amongdentalprofessionalstoper- form medical screening. Overall, the results showed that further knowledge and guidelines, as well as additional research on imple- mentation strategies and long- term follow-up of medical screen- ing, are needed before medical screeningcanbewidelyintroduced in dental settings, the researchers concluded. The research article, titled“Med- ical screening in dental settings: A qualitative study of the views of authoritiesandorganizations”,was published online on 19 October in the BMC Research Notes journal. ¯ Page 1 DTNE0315_01-02_Title 02.11.15 11:38 Seite 2 Tel.: +4934148474-302 Fax: +4934148474-173 Tel.: +85231136177 Fax: +85231136199 Tel.: +12122447181 Fax: +12122247185 DTNE0315_01-02_Title 02.11.1511:38 Seite 2