Construction of a micro/nano structured surface on a β-TCP/CaSiO3 bioceramic promotes osteogenic differentiation of mBMSCs

Cellular behavior is a result of homologous responses to biomaterials, especially material surfaces. An effective way to elicit a desired biological response is to employ micro/nanostructured constructions for biomaterial surface design; however, the brittleness of inorganic materials usually hinders structure regulation. In this study, a micro/nanostructured surface was fabricated using a hydrothermal treatment that did not require crystal regulation reagents. The precursor, β-tricalcium phosphate, was mixed with CaSiO3. The resulting micro/nanostructured surface had a hybrid structure containing nanowires, microrods, and rod clusters. In vitro cellular proliferation, cytotoxicity and osteodifferentiation experiments indicated that the micro/nanostructured surfaces alleviated material cytotoxicity, improved cell proliferation, and effectively promoted osteogenic differentiation of mouse bone mesenchymal stem cells. These results suggest that this simplified surface treatment is an efficient way to improve cell biological response to inorganic biomaterials.