Morphological Observations of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Adhesion to a Nanoperiodic- Structured Titanium Surface Patterned Using Femtosecond Laser Processing

摘要

It is known that the adhesive and anisotropic properties of cell-derived biomaterials are affected by micro- or nanoscale structures processed on culture surfaces. In the present study, the femtosecond laser processing technique was used to scan a laser beam at an intensity of approximately the ablation threshold level on a titanium surface for nanoscale processing. Microscopy observation revealed that the processed titanium exhibited a periodic-patterned groove structure at the surface; the width and depth of the groove were 292 ± 50 and 99 ± 31 nm, respectively, and the periodic pitch of the groove was 501 ± 100 nm. Human synovium-derived mesenchymal stem cells were cultured on the surface at a cell density of 3.0 × 10~3 cells/cm~2 after 4 cell passages. For comparison, the cells were also cultured on a nonprocessed titanium surface under the condition identical to that of the processed surface. Results revealed that the duration for cell attachment to the surface was markedly reduced on the processed titanium as compared with the nonprocessed titanium. Moreover, on the processed titanium, cell extension area significantly increased while cell orientation was aligned along the direction of the periodic grooves. These results suggest that the femtosecond laser processing improves the adhesive and anisotropic properties of cells by producing the nanoperiodic structure on titanium culture surfaces.