Mimicking the nanofeatures of bone increases bone-forming cell adhesion and proliferation

There is a great need to design better orthopaedic implant devices by modifying their surface properties. In this respect, one approach that has received much attention of late is the simulation of the surface roughness of bone in synthetic orthopaedic implant materials. Bone has numerous nanometre features due to the presence of nanostructured entities such as collagen and hydroxyapatite. Despite this fact, current orthopaedic implant materials are smooth at the nanoscale. Previous studies have measured increased osteoblast (bone-forming cell) functions on biologically inspired nanophase titania compared to conventional titania formulations. In fact, in vitro calcium deposition by osteoblasts was up to three times higher on nanostructured compared to conventional titania. However, it was unclear in those studies what underlying surface properties (roughness, crystallinity, crystal phase, chemistry, etc) promoted enhanced functions of osteoblasts on nanophase titania. For that reason, the objective of the present in vitro study was to specifically determine the role nanostructured surface roughness of titania had on increasing functions of osteoblasts. To achieve this, the surface roughness of nanophase and conventional titania was transferred to a model tissue engineering polymer: poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA). Results of the present study demonstrated greater osteoblast adhesion and proliferation for up to 5 days of culture on PLGA moulds of nanophase compared to conventional titania. In this manner, this study elucidated that the property of nanophase titania which increased osteoblast function was a large degree of nanometre surface features that mimicked bone. For this reason, nanophase materials deserve more attention in improving orthopaedic implant applications.