During the process that implant materials are used for bone replacement,the cell responses to implant materials determine the long-term stability of bone replacement.The microstructure of implant materials is considered as a critical factor that influences the cell responses.Carbon/Carbon composites(C/C composites) are novel implant materials,but there are few reports on the effect of their microstructure,especially the carbon matrixes and holes,on cell behavior.In this paper,C/C composites with different carbon matrixes are prepared by chemical vapor infiltration and pressure impregnation carbonization technique,respectively.The structure of holes is analyzed.The cell responses to C/C composites with different carbon matrixes are evaluated with MG63 osteoblast-like cells.The morphologies of MG63 osteoblast-like cells on the surface of C/C composites,especially in the holes are assessed by scanning electron microscope,and cell proliferation behavior is evaluated by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiozol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay. The results show that MG63 osteoblast-like cells have a lamellar morphology with similar sizes and spreading areas as well as the same proliferation behaviors for C/C composites with different carbon matrixes.Carbon matrix shows unapparent influence on the cell growth behavior.Besides,MG63 osteoblast-like cells have various interactions with the holes of C/C composites.The cells stride over the holes with 6～8μm in size,and connect with each other or grow along the curvature wall of the holes with a size of 30-40μm;the cells present three-dimensional morphologies inside the holes and display circular shapes along the ridge of the holes.Diverse cell-material interactions are found according to the size and position of the holes,which provides theoretical foundation for the microstructure design of clinical C/C composites.
ZHANG Leilei LI Hejun LI Kezhi ZHAO Xueni WU Heng CAO Sheng
