Fibroblast shape conformation to surface micromorphology

Abstract

Fibroblasts in culture and in vitro have been shown to interact with certain surface morphological phenomena. It was the aim of the present study to determine cellular morphological interactions with surface grooves of subcellular dimensions. The silicon oxide layer of a wafer was photoetched, which resulted in a regular micromorphology with linear rectangular shaped microbars and microgrooves 1, 1.5, and 2 pm in diameter and distance from each other. Human fibroblasts were seeded on the sterile specimen and incubated for 48 h. Fluorescence microscopy of the plates revealed that all the cells were aligned parallel to the etched grooves on the test specimen, whereas on the controls the cells were randomly orientated. It could be demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy that single cells were flattened over the surface and conformed to the silicon microgrooves. This indicates that fibroblasts are orienting during adhesion and conform to the surface microtexture to gain a maximum contact area on the presented surface.

The effect of surface chemistry and nanotopography of titanium nitride (TiN) films on 3T3-L1 fibroblasts

“…Attached fibroblasts exhibited normal characteristics with spreading and process formation indicative of viable cell attachment and growth when compared with the control substrate. Meyle et al 28 studied the effect of fibroblast shape conformation to microgrooves on silicon wafer and showed that once the cell has received sufficient stimuli to indicate that the surface is favorable for cell attachment, the cell can detect the topography of the surface by forming focal contacts to the substrate. The cell would then increase its contact area by an active flattening and flowing motion into surface contours by use of numerous filopodia and lamellipodia, which may then result in alignment of the cells with any ridges on the substrate.…”

Contact guidance of fibroblasts on biomaterial surfaces

“…Also it has been demonstrated that glow discharge treatment results in a hydrophilic silicone surface with similar properties and cellular reactions to those already observed on silicon oxide and araldite [5][6][7].…”

“…This line pattern was developed in a wet etching process which resulted in a regular surface microstructure with a groove depth of 1 lam arid a groove width of 4 gm separated by rectangular ridges of 1 gm. For a more detailed description of the production of the wafer surface see [6].…”

“…The samples were immediately immersed in tissue culture medium and subsequently washed with Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, Serva, Heidelberg) without Ca z+ supplemented with antibiotic/antimycotic solution (500 lal/50 ml culture medium) (Gibco, Eggenstein). The specimens were cut under aspectic conditions into approximately 5 mm 2-sized pieces and incubated in culture medium (see also [6]). …”

“…Recently some in vitro experiments revealed that fibroblasts not only orientate but also conform to the topography of the material's surface and that this most probably leads to mechanical interlocking [6,7]. The reason for this alignment is still unknown.…”