Response of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells to the microenvironment produced on Co–Cr–Mo alloy using laser surface texturing

Osteoblast responses to Co–Cr–Mo alloy depend on not only the chemistry of alloy but also the physical properties of alloy surface, such as its microtopography and roughness. This study was undertaken to examine changes in cell adhesion, morphology, differentiation and gene expression during osteoblast interaction with different textured Co–Cr–Mo alloys. With laser surface texturing, three kinds of textured surfaces were fabricated. It showed that the microenvironment processed by laser surface texturing leads to an increase in surface roughness and DMEM contact angles of samples. Adhesion and differentiation tests demonstrated that osteoblast cells can discriminate surfaces with different roughness and surfaces with comparable roughness but different topographies such as triangle, circle and square textures. Morphological characteristics obtained by SEM imaging showed that osteoblast cells are elongated and are in polygonal shape on the textured surface. OPG/RANKL mRNA expression studies showed a significant and marked decrease in RANKL gene expression on the square-textured surface; by contrast, the ratio of OPG/RANKL showed a significant increase. These results indicate that Co–Cr–Mo surface textures affect osteoblast proliferation, morphology and gene expression; the microenvironment of implant should be considered in the future design.