Dry mouth has many possible causes, many of which involve the destruction of your salivary glands. The big problem with treating such conditions is that salivary glands are not very good at regenerating themselves. Fortunately, modern research into the potential of cell-based therapies are showing a lot of potential to give new hope to people suffering from this condition.
A team from the University of Texas at San Antonio described in Tissue Engineering Part A how they managed to make use of silk fibers to guide stem cells into producing fresh salivary glands. These fibers act as something of a scaffold for the cells, after which a nourishing medium is added to facilitate growth. After several weeks, the cells created a solid structure around the silk, which eventually biodegrades.
Though the process is not quite ready to treat patients yet, the team is optimistic that they will be able to produce fully functional salivary glands from stem cells in the near future. Until such a time, seek out our Federal Way family dentistry clinic for help overcoming your dry mouth problems.
