Adhesion of osteoblasts on chemically patterned nanocrystalline diamonds

The compatibility of engineered surfaces with tissues, cells and biological molecules is critical in development of medical diagnostics, biosensors, drug delivery systems, etc. Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films represent group of novel materials with superior electro‐optical, chemical, and mechanical properties for such devices. We studied adhesion and viability of human osteoblastic cells on NCD films with the aim to define optimal semiconductor interfaces for novel thin‐film biosensor. We cultured human osteoblasts (SAOS‐2) at different densities on chemically terminated NCD films with periodical O‐ and H‐terminated stripes of different width – 30, 100 and 200 µm and analysed cell cytoskeleton (actin filaments) and focal adhesions by fluorescence microscopy. We found that cell attachment is guided by the hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterns with preferential initial cellular adhesion on hydrophilic (O‐terminated) surface. Cell adhesion seems to be mediated by preferential culture medium proteins adsorption on the surface. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)