3D Bioprinting and AI for Customized Gum Grafts: Efficiency, Precision and New Medical Perspectives | Google generative ai free course online | Generative ai certification microsoft free | Generative ai in investment management | Turtles AI

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed an innovative method that combines 3D bioprinting with AI to create customized gum tissue grafts. This approach offers a less invasive and more precise alternative to traditional methods, improving the efficiency of dental treatments and reducing discomfort for patients.

Key points:

• Integration of 3D bioprinting and AI to create customized gum grafts.
• Optimization of printing parameters with AI, reducing the time and resources required.
• Improvement of cell viability and structural integrity of bioprinted grafts.
• Possible future applications in tissue engineering beyond dentistry.

Traditionally, repairing gum defects requires harvesting tissue from the patient’s mouth, a process that is often painful and limited by the availability of adequate tissue. The NUS team, led by Assistant Professor Gopu Sriram from the Faculty of Dentistry, has developed a technique that uses 3D bioprinting to produce customised gum grafts, eliminating the need for invasive harvesting. A key aspect of this innovation is the integration of AI into the bioprinting process. Traditionally, optimising printing parameters, such as extrusion pressure, printing speed and bioink viscosity, required extensive manual experiments. The use of AI has significantly reduced the number of combinations tested from thousands to just 25, according to Professor Dean Ho, co-author of the study and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at NUS. The developed bioink supports the growth of healthy cells and ensures that the printed material maintains its shape and structure. The bioprinted grafts showed cell viability of over 90% immediately after printing and during an 18-day culture period. Histological analyses confirmed the presence of key proteins and a multilayered structure similar to natural gingival tissue. These results suggest that the approach could significantly improve dental treatment outcomes, reducing patient discomfort and minimizing the risk of post-operative complications. The implications of this research could extend beyond dentistry. 3D bioprinting enables the creation of tissue grafts that precisely match the dimensions of a patient’s wounds, potentially reducing or eliminating the need to harvest tissue from the patient’s body. This level of customization minimizes distortion and tension of the graft during wound closure, reducing the risk of complications, surgery time, and patient discomfort.

Additionally, the scarless healing characteristics of oral tissue offer a unique advantage, as the insights from this study could inform the fabrication of similar grafts for other barrier tissues, such as skin, potentially promoting scarless healing of cutaneous wounds.