FIBROBLAST SHAPE CONFORMATION TO SURFACE MICROMORPHOLOGY

Fibroblasts in culture and in vitro have been shown to interact with certain surface morphological phenomena. It was the aim of the present study to determine cellular morphological interactions with surface grooves of subcellular dimensions. The silicon oxide layer of a wafer was photoetched, which resulted in a regular micromorphology with linear rectangular shaped microbars and microgrooves 1, 1.5, and 2-mu-m in diameter and distance from each other. Human fibroblasts were seeded on the sterile specimen and incubated for 48 h. Fluorescence microscopy of the plates revealed that all the cells were aligned parallel to the etched grooves on the test specimen, whereas on the controls the cells were randomly orientated. It could be demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy that single cells were flattened over the surface and conformed to the silicon microgrooves. This indicates that fibroblasts are orienting during adhesion and conform to the surface microtexture to gain a maximum contact area on the presented surface.