| Summary: | Surface roughness affects bone formation around orthopaedic implants in vivo and osteoblast functions in vitro. Osteoblast-like MG63 cells cultured on rough surfaces exhibited decreased cell number, increased differentiation and increased local factor production when compared to cells grow on smooth surfaces. In these experiments, roughness was characterized as average peak to valley height (Ra) which is not equal throughout the surface. Other features of roughness, including peak and valley area distributions and curvature of the valleys, will affect cell functions. In this study, novel titanium surfaces were prepared by photolithography to produce well designed microstructure and nanostructure. Smooth disks were made by producing craters of 10 micrometer, 30 micrometer and 100 micrometer diameters on titanium disks with constant curvatures. Craters were placed sparsely (10/1, 30/1, 100/1) or compactly (10/6, 30/6, 100/6). Smooth disks were also acid etched to make an overall roughness of Ra 0.7 micrometer or anodized to produce volcano-like nanostructure of Ra 0.4 micrometer. The results revealed the distinguishing contributions of microcrater size, crater spacing and nanostructures to surface effect on cell number, differentiation (alkaline phosphatase; osteocalcin) and local factor levels (TGF-beta1; PGE2). Cell attachment depends on crater spacing; cell growth and aggregation depend on crater dimension and cell morphology depends on the presence of nanostructural features. Cell differentiation and local factor production are modulated by acid etched roughness in concert with microstructure, and active TGF-beta1 level depends on nanoscale roughness.
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