The Tumor That Grows Teeth, Middle school
Your body has many kinds of cells, like skin cells, bone cells and nerve cells. Some tumors grow in an ovary, the organ where eggs form.
Could a tumor in an ovary grow a tooth?
Your word of the day is
ter-uh-TOH-muh
A tumor made up of different types of tissue. A dermoid cyst is a teratoma, and doctors also call it a mature cystic teratoma.
In the video, Raven calls sperm swimmers. She says sperm do two jobs. One job is adding the dad’s DNA. The other job is starting the egg dividing. A dermoid cyst starts when an egg cell, or a cell on its way to becoming an egg, starts dividing with no sperm.
Which sperm job happens in a dermoid cyst, even with no sperm?
A dermoid cyst starts as one cell.
How can a dermoid cyst’s one starting cell make so many kinds of tissue?
In mammals, Raven says, dad’s DNA brings “the organization part.”
Why does a human egg cell that starts dividing alone make a dermoid cyst instead of a baby?
Scientists made a mouse named Kaguya from two eggs and no dad’s DNA.
Why did Kaguya the mouse grow into a whole mouse when a dermoid cyst grows into “body salad”?
A dermoid cyst can hold skin, hair, fat and teeth.