Zinc-Doped Titanium Dioxide Microporous Coating Promotes Osteoblast Adhesion Through the Integrin β1/FAK/RhoA Signaling Pathway

Abstract

Titanium and titanium alloys are widely used bone repair materials in clinical practice. However, titanium and titanium alloys are biologically inert and cannot induce bone formation, resulting in poor integration between titanium-based implants and the surrounding natural bone tissue. We used early-stage plasma oxidation to prepare a zinc doped TiO2 microporous structure (ZnTMS) coating on a titanium surface with good surface morphology. In vitro studies have shown that this coating can promote osteoblast proliferation and differentiation and has good biological activity. However, the specific molecular mechanism by which the ZnTMS coating affects cell regulation is still unclear. In this study, we aimed to further investigate the effect of the ZnTMS coating on the adhesion and extension of MC3T3-E1 cells through cellular and molecular biology experiments and to explore the molecular mechanism underlying the enhanced cell adhesion.We found that the ZnTMS coating can not only promote the adhesion and extension of MC3T3-E1 cells but can also promote the expression of actin and Vinculin. Further research showed that the ZnTMS coating can upregulate the protein expression of integrin β1, FAK, pFAK, and RhoA in MC3T3-E1 cells. Therefore, the integrin β1/FAK/RhoA signaling pathway may play important roles in the promotion of MC3T3-E1 cell adhesion by the ZnTMS coating.