Salivary gland mini-organs grown from pluripotent stem cells offer potential path to treating severe dry mouth
Extreme dry mouth, caused by radiation used to treat cancer and by autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren's disease, radically affects quality of life for sufferers. It can hamper speaking, swallowing and eating, and for years has seemed an intractable problem.
Salivary gland mini-organs grown from human pluripotent stem cells may offer a potential solution for treating severe dry mouth, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Missouri. Dry mouth, caused by radiation or autoimmune diseases like Sjögren's syndrome, can severely impact daily life. While previous attempts to stimulate salivary glands or create artificial saliva have been unsuccessful, the new strategy involves creating salivary glands from human stem cells that could be implanted into the mouth.
These stem cells, derived from adult cells like skin or blood cells, are guided to develop into tiny three-dimensional structures called organoids. When transplanted into immunodeficient mice, these organoids survived and integrated into the existing salivary gland tissue, forming structures similar to mature glands. The research, published in Nature Communications, suggests that these organoids could potentially act as a renewable source of replacement cells for patients, helping to restore saliva production and study salivary gland diseases in the lab.
Written by urgent.news from Phys.org's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
