Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Osteoblasts are responsible for bone formation, and the effects of NTs on osteoblast functions
have been widely observed on primary rat calvarial osteoblasts
[3,4,31]
and MC3T3-E1 mouse
osteoblasts
[10,26]
. There is some controversy on the effects of the NTs on some of the osteoblast
functions due to the differential experimental conditions in the literature. However, it seems that
the NTs are effective in promoting ECM secretion and mineralization. The NTs with diameters of
25 and 80 nm formed in 0.5 wt% aqueous HF solution can induce more collagen secretion and min-
eral deposition in primary rat calvarial osteoblast cultures
[4]
. Hierarchical hybrid micro/nanotex-
tured titanium surface topographies with NTs produced by our group by simple acid etching
followed by anodization mimic the hierarchical structures of bone tissues, thereby inducing more
collagen secretion compared to the microrough and flat Ti surfaces (
Figure 17.7
)
[3]
.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
FIGURE 17.7
Collagen secretion by osteoblasts on samples after 7 days of incubation. (A) Hierarchical hybrid micro/
nanotextured surface with 15 nm NTs, (B) hierarchical hybrid micro/nanotextured surface with 80 nm NTs,
(C) acid-etched microstructured surface, and (D) flat Ti surface.
Reprinted with permission from Ref.
[3]
.
