Mesenchymal stem cell growth behavior on micro/nano hierarchical surfaces of titanium substrates

Surface topography of an orthopedic implant plays an essential role in the regulation of bone formation with surrounding bone tissue. To investigate the effects of surface topography of titanium (Ti) substrates on cellular behavior of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a series of micro/nano hierarchical structures were fabricated onto micro-structured titanium (Micro-Ti) substrates via a sol-gel method with spin-coat technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface profiler, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water contact angle measurement were employed to certify the successful fabrication of micro/nano hierarchical structures with the presence of various nano-sized TiO2 grains (20 nm, 40 nm and 80 nm, respectively) onto micro-structured surfaces. The formation mechanism of the micro/nano hierarchical structures was proposed. Moreover, the effects of those hierarchical structures on the growth behavior of MSCs were evaluated both on cellular and molecular levels in vitro. The results confirmed that micro/nano hierarchical structures with large grains (80 nm) greatly promoted the proliferation and differentiation of MSCs comparing with other small grains (20 nm and 40 nm). The study provides an alternative for the fabrication of hierarchically structured Ti implants for potential orthopedic application.