Surface is the first contact with the living tissues when an implant is placed in the body. Therefore, surface characteristics of biomaterials play an essential role in the performance of a potential device. The aim of this study was to modify the surface of chitosan membranes, prepared by solvent casting, and to study the effect of the modifications on osteoblast-like cells adhesion/proliferation. Plasma activation and then grafting by subsequent immersing in monomer solution was performed. Two monomers were used to compare the influence of different functional groups on cell adhesion; acrylic acid (AA) as a source of carboxyl groups and vinyl sulfonic acid (VSA) for sulfonic groups' introduction. All treatments resulted in more hydrophilic (contact angle) surfaces. The monomer grafting on the surface was also confirmed by X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); S peak appears in the VSA spectrum and C=O peak intensity increase after AA grafting. Fournier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) showed no significant differences between treated and original materials. This was expected since the modification was performed only on very surface layer of the materials and not in the bulk. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyzes has indicated that surface topography was not affected by the different treatments. Cell adhesion and proliferation tests (SaOs-2) revealed that the presence of sulfonic groups significantly increases both SaOs-2 proliferation (dsDNA quantification) and the activity of the osteoblasts marker Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) compared to untreated or AA-grafted membranes. Cell morphological analysis (optical microscopy, SEM) confirmed these results.The present results might be very useful for tailoring cell adhesion/proliferation on chitosan biomaterials. This is particularly relevant, as it is known that cell adhesion and proliferation are major factors to consider when applying biodegradable polymers as scaffolds for tissue engineering.

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