"The grooves on our disks were a hundred times smaller than an individual fibroblast," von Recum said, adding that the cells attached to the textured disks by depositing proteins into the grooves.
Fibroblasts from mice were left to grow on both the smooth and textured disks for three days. At the end of that time, the researchers used photomicrography taking an image through a confocal microscope to determine the distance between cell membranes and disk surfaces.
The distance between the fibroblasts and the surface of the textured disks was immeasurable, suggesting that these cells had adhered to the surface. Conversely, the researchers could measure the distance although very small, on the order of nanometers between cell membranes and the surface of a smooth disk.
"Texturing provided a strong adherence between the surface of a cell and the surface of a disk," von Recum said. "That's exactly what we want in an actual implant."
That the cells responded so readily to physical changes on the disk surfaces surprised the researchers.
"Almost everything in the biological world responds primarily to chemical signals," von Recum said. "It was astonishing to find that these fibroblasts responded strongly to mechanical signals on the disk surface."
Adding texture to implants isn't a new concept; it first gained popularity in the 1960s.
"The problem with those implants was that the scale of roughness was a hundred to a thousand times larger than what we've found to be effective," von Recum said. "The interface went beyond a layer of connective tissue cells these old implants essentially became embedded in the body as connective tissue and bone grew into them. Their removal was nearly impossible, as it usually resulted in major bone loss in some types of imp
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Contact: Andreas von Recum
vonrecum.1@osu.edu
614-292-9733
Ohio State University
14-Jun-2004