Effect of Surface Microroughening of Titanium Alloy on Osteoblast Adhesion and Proliferation Behavior

Ti-25Nb-3Mo-3Zr-2Sn (TLM) titanium alloy was treated via surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) for 15 min in this paper, after which the treated and untreated titanium alloy samples were respectively cultured with osteoblast cells for 1 h and 24 h. XRD, OM, TEM, SEM, EDX and CLSM were adopted to analyze the structure of the samples, and the obtained results revealed that SMAT process did not alter the phase composition, grain size and chemical composition of TLM alloy. Both the treated and untreated titanium alloys were composed of the same solely β phase, in the same grain size of about 10-20 μm and without newly-brought impurity elements. However, this treatment would alter the surface roughness of TLM alloy. The untreated sample possessed a smooth surface with a roughness value Ra of about (0.2±0.03) μm, whereas the treated surface owed an uneven surface with a roughness value Ra of about (2.6±0.4) μm. The subsequent cellular experiment showed that the seeded osteoblasts on SMAT-treated surface spread much wider and proliferated more rapidly compared with the untreated surface. Our study suggests that SMAT could improve the living condition of osteoblast on TLM alloy surface, thus providing a promising means for the design of more potential biomedical titanium implants used on clinic.