Effects of substrates nanopattering on osteosarcoma cell behaviour.

Engineering of the cellular microenvironment has become an attractive strategy to guide cellular activities such as spreading, motility, proliferation and differentiation. From a technological perspective, the physical crosstalk between the cell and its surroundings represents a design parameter that may be modulated to achieve desired physiological outcome. In this study we present a surface engineering approach to tap into the physical crosstalk between the cell and its surroundings in order to modulate osteogenic anchorage-dependent differentiation and bone formation. The effectiveness of this approach was studied by comparing the cellular behavior of human SOAS sarcoma cells on nanostructured silicon substrates with distinct nanoscale patterns. Random nano-islands were realized by controlled deposition of tin on the polished side of silicon wafers by thermal evaporation. Four different shaped surfaces of nano structured substrates were used in this study. Silicon substrates present surface islands with diameters ranging from 10 to 35 nm and inter-island distances of 41 (B), 51 (E) or 80 (F) nm respectively. Substrate A is planar silicon used as control