Morphological alterations of T24 cells on flat and nanotubular TiO2 surfaces

Aim To investigate morphological alterations of malignant cancer cells (T24) of urothelial origin seeded on flat titanium (Ti) and nanotubular titanium dioxide (TiO2) nano-structures. Methods Using anodization method, TiO2 surfaces composed of vertically aligned nanotubes of 50-100 nm diameters were produced. The flat Ti surface was used as a reference. The alteration in the morphology of cancer cells was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A computational model, based on the theory of membrane elasticity, was constructed to shed light on the biophysical mechanisms responsible for the observed changes in the contact area of adhesion. Results Large diameter TiO2 nanotubes exhibited a significantly smaller contact area of adhesion (P < 0.0001) and had more membrane protrusions (eg, microvilli and intercellular membrane nanotubes) than on flat Ti surface. Numerical membrane dynamics simulations revealed that the low adhesion energy per unit area would hinder the cell spreading on the large diameter TiO2 nanotubular surface, thus explaining the small contact area. Conclusion The reduction in the cell contact area in the case of large diameter TiO2 nanotube surface, which does not enable formation of the large enough number of the focal adhesion points, prevents spreading of urothelial cells.