Osteoblast growth on titanium foils coated with hydroxyapatite by pulsed laser ablation

Pulsed laser ablation is a new method for deposition of thin layers of hydr oxyapatite (HA) on to biomaterial surfaces. In this paper, we report activi ty and morphology of osteoblasts grown on HA surfaces fabricated using diff erent laser conditions. Two sets of films were deposited from dense HA targ ets, at three different laser fluences: 3, 6 and 9 J cm(-2). One set of the surfaces was annealed at 575 degreesC to increase the crystallinity of the deposited films. Primary human osteoblasts were seeded onto the material s urfaces and cytoskeletal actin organisation was examined using confocal las er scanning microscopy. The annealed surfaces supported greater cell attach ment and more defined cytoskeletal actin organisation. Cell activity, measu red using the alamar Blue assay, was also found to be significantly higher on the annealed samples. In addition, our results show distinct trends that correlate with the laser fluence used for deposition. The cell activity in creases with increasing fluence. This pattern was repeated for alkaline pho sphatase production by the cells. Differences in cell spreading were appare nt which were correlated with the fluence used to deposit the HA. The optim um surface for initial attachment and spreading of osteoblasts was one of t he HA films deposited using 9 J cm-2 laser fluence and subsequently anneale d at 575 degreesC (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.