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Titanium and its alloys have become key materials for biomedical applications, mainly owing to their compatibility with human tissues and their mechanical strength. Effects of surface topography on cell and tissue response have been investigated extensively in the past, while (bio)chemical surface modification and its combination with designed topographies have remained largely unexplored. The following report describes some of the strategies used or intended to modify titanium surfaces, based on biological principles, with a focus on ultrathin biomimetic adlayers. One of the visions behind such approaches is to achieve improved healing and integration responses after implantation for patients, especially for those suffering from deficiencies, for example, diabetes or osteoporosis, two diseases that have increased drastically in our society during the last century.

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The goal of this study was to reproducibly generate samples with complex surface topographies and chemistries identical to a "master surface" and to test their response in cell culture using rat calvarial cells. Negative replicas of dual-type topography were fabricated using dental impression material with half of the surface exhibiting smooth and rough topography, respectively. Positive epoxy resin replicas were cast from the same negative replica eight times consecutively and coated with a 60-nm thin film of titanium dioxide using a vapor deposition technique. Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, confocal white light microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that TiO(2)-coated epoxy replicas had surface topographical features and surface compositions nearly indistinguishable from the original titanium master surfaces. The described technique showed high reproducibility over at least eight generations of replication using the same negative replica. Rat calvarial osteoblasts proliferated just as well on dual topography surfaces as on single topography surfaces. The advantage of the dual-type substrates is that they facilitate comparison within a single culture dish, thus eliminating dish-to-dish variation as well as saving material, time and costs compared to the usual method of evaluating surfaces in separate dishes.