One of the most common hereditary craniofacial anomalies in humans are cleft lip and cleft alveolar bone with or without cleft palate. German researchers developed a novel therapy concept based on 3D printing of biodegradable calcium phosphate-based materials allowing fabrication of patient-specific, tissue-engineered bone grafts.

Morphology of scaffolds of type A and B, cell colonization and implantation. (A,B) Scheme of the scaffolds, stereomicroscopical images of the scaffolds after plotting and fluorescence-microscopical images of the scaffolds seeded with rMSC (green: actin cytoskeletons, blue: nuclei, CPC exhibits blue autofluorescence). Scaffolds of type A were fabricated with 60° layer-to-layer orientation and scaffolds of type B with 30° layer-to-layer orientation. (C) Empty defect of the cleft (left) and filled defect with a precisely fitting scaffold (right).

reference:

Korn P, Ahlfeld T, Lahmeyer F, Kilian D, Sembdner P, Stelzer R, Pradel W, Franke A, Rauner M, Range U, Stadlinger B. 3D Printing of Bone Grafts for Cleft Alveolar Osteoplasty–In vivo Evaluation in a Preclinical Model. Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology. 2020 Mar 25;8:217.