Osteoblast response on co-modified titanium surfaces via anodization and electrospinning

Topography plays a key role in osseointegration and surface modifications at the subcellular level, increasing initial cell attachment in the early period. In the past decade, nanosized texture on metal like a nanotube layer and also more recently extracellular matrix like surface modifications - such as polymeric nanofibrils - have been proposed for a better osseointegration in the literature. Here, we investigate two types of nanoscaled modifications alone and together for the first time. We characterized different types of surface modifications morphologically and investigated how they affected osteoblast cells in vitro, in terms of cell adhesion, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium content. We anodized titanium samples with a thickness of 0.127 mm to obtain a nanotubular titania layer and the silk fibroin (SF), as a biocompatible polymeric material, was electrospun onto both anodized and unanodized samples to acquire 4 sample groups. We analyzed the resulting samples morphologically by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cell adhesion, proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium content were evaluated at 3,7 and 14 days. We found that cell proliferation increased by 70% on the groups having two modifications respect to unmodified titanium and after 7 days, ALP activity and calcium content were 110% and 150%, respectively, higher on surfaces having both surface treatments than that of unmodified group. In conclusion, a nanotube layer and SF nanofibers on a titanium surface enhanced cell attachment and proliferation most. Comodification of titanium surfaces by anodization and SF electrospinning may be useful to enhance osseointegration but it requires in vivo confirmation