It is well known that cell adhesion to the surface of the substrate is the first phase of cell-substrate interaction, and the quality of this adhesion plays an important role in the modulation of cell functions such as morphology, proliferation, protein production and differentiation. As shown by several studies, the surface chemistry and the topography of the substrates are responsible for the variation in cytoskeleton organization and proliferation. Since the cytoskeleton is believed to be responsible for the mechanical properties of cell, the alteration in its architecture upon adhesion to diverse substrates may lead to changes in the mechanical stiffness of the cell. This fact assumes that a high value of Young’s modulus is directly correlated with a good cell adhesion.

In this work, we have used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to investigate the biocompatibility of carbon nanotube-based constructs by studying the adhesion behavior of osteoblast-like cells. Exploiting the ability of AFM to image cells under physiological conditions we were able to determine the cytomechanical properties of living osteoblasts cultured on substrates with randomly-distributed CNTs, cavity-like assembled nanotubes, and smooth glass surface.

Experimental data show that the elastic modulus of the osteoblast cells is modulated by the substrate to which they adhere. We have found that the osteoblasts plated on non-nanostructured substrate (glass) have the lowest cell stiffness (3.71 ± 1.48 kPa), whereas cells adhered to the cavity-like topography expressed an increased average cellular elasticity           (E = 5.43 ± 2.05 kPa). Moreover, we observed that irregular topography has a weaker influence on osteoblast adhesion, which results in a decreased elastic modulus in the case of cells cultured on randomly distributed carbon nanotubes.

• Legal notice:
  

  Copyright (c) Pielaszek Research, all rights reserved.
  The above materials, including auxiliary resources, are subject to Publisher's copyright and the Author(s) intellectual rights. Without limiting Author(s) rights under respective Copyright Transfer Agreement, no part of the above documents may be reproduced without the express written permission of Pielaszek Research, the Publisher. Express permission from the Author(s) is required to use the above materials for academic purposes, such as lectures or scientific presentations.
  In every case, proper references including Author(s) name(s) and URL of this webpage: https://science24.com/paper/15654 must be provided.

1. Possible biotechnology applications of seed mediated grown gold nanorods
2. Structural and optical properties of gold nanolines
3. Novel semiconductor nanorod/nanowire architectures.