The new process comes from the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), which is located in Portland. With the process medical scientists have created a technique to engineer new blood vessels in the teeth. Currently with root canal surgery, a dentist will attempt to remove infected dental tissues and replacing them with synthetic biological materials. These constructs are later covered with a protective crown.
The downside of this, Dr. Luiz Bertassoni explains, is that the “process eliminates the tooth’s blood and nerve supply, rendering it lifeless and void of any biological response or defense mechanism. Without this functionality, adult teeth may be lost much sooner, which can result in much greater concerns, such as the need for dentures or dental implants.”
To overcome this issue, Dr. Bertassoni has turned to 3D printing technology. The scientist has used additive printing to create blood vessels in the laboratory. To achieve this, a fiber mold made of sugar molecules is positioned across the root canal of extracted human teeth. Following this, a gel-like material, which is filled with dental pulp cells, is injected. the fiber is then removed to create a long microchannel in the root canal. Into this gap endothelial cells, isolated from the interior lining of blood vessels, are carefully inserted.
Trials have shown that seven days later dentin-producing cells proliferate near the tooth walls and later artificial blood vessels are formed inside the tooth. In other words, an artificial blood vessel has been fabricated. This aids the successful regeneration of the function of the teeth in a patient.
The new process of engineering blood vessels has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. The research is titled “A Novel Strategy to Engineer Pre-Vascularized Full-Length Dental Pulp-like Tissue Constructs.”
