Baby teeth stem cell banking advertisements 'misleading'

Parents spending thousands of pounds to bank baby teeth-derived stem cells may have been misled by advertising claims.

Stem cells have the potential to transform into different cell types within the body. The companies advertising the stem cell banking services claim they can be used in therapies for conditions such as diabetes and autism. However, an investigation by journalist Emma Wilkinson, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests these claims are unsubstantiated and potentially misleading.

'There is a lack of evidence and a paucity of research using dental pulp stem cells to treat patients,' said Dr Jill Shepherd, senior lecturer in stem cell biology at the University of Kent, and one of the experts consulted by Wilkinson. 'There's no evidence to suggest stem cells stored from a child's milk tooth would ever be needed to treat that child.'

Tooth stem cell banking involves parents collecting their children's fallen milk teeth before sending them to a laboratory to harvest stem cells from their dental pulp. The investigation found that the three companies in the UK offering baby tooth stem cell banking all operate out of a single laboratory.

Wilkinson looked at the claims made on the companies' websites, noting that BioEden describes stem cell therapy as the 'next frontier' for treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with the company detailing it has 'already witnessed the remarkable evidence of these ongoing developments' among its customers.

Future Health Biobank states on its website that it has released 26 tooth stem cell samples for treatment, for conditions including autism, type 1 diabetes, and knee cartilage regeneration. Stem Protect's website includes claims that baby teeth-derived stem cells can treat cleft palates, HIV/AIDs, severe combined immunodeficiency, and sickle cell disease.

Wilkinson consulted a number of experts to evaluate the evidence behind these claims.

'To my knowledge, there is currently no active human clinical research using stem cells derived from baby teeth to treat diabetes,' said Dr Sufyan Hussain, a stem cell therapy investigator in the field of type 1 diabetes at King's College London. 'While we remain hopeful about future treatments, there is also a risk that companies might exploit these hopes to generate additional revenue.'

'Autism is not a disease or illness, it cannot be treated, and there is no cure,' said Tim Nicholls, assistant director of policy, research, and strategy at the National Autistic Society, UK. 'It is dangerous and morally bankrupt to target potentially vulnerable people with expensive procedures that could, in fact, cause harm.'

As a result of her investigation, Wilkinson said: 'I found that the claims [these companies] are making are unproven and potentially misleading, to the extent that I felt it was breaching Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) guidelines and I put in a formal complaint.'

The ASA has said it will review the complaint and has issued advice to the companies to 'amend their advertising and any objective claims that they do not hold adequate substantiation for'.