title: Morphological alterations of T24 cells on flat and nanotubular TiO2 surfaces.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate morphological alterations of malignant cancer cells (T24) of urothelial origin seeded on flat titanium (Ti) and nanotubular TiO(2) (titanium dioxide) nanostructures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using anodization method, TiO(2) 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 TiO(2) 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 TiO(2) nanotubular surface, thus explaining the small contact area.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reduction in the cell contact area in the case of large diameter TiO(2) nanotube surface, which does not enable formation of the large enough number of the focal adhesion points, prevents spreading of urothelial cells.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Roghayeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Imani
authors.forename: Doron
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kabaso
authors.forename: Mateja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erdani Kreft
authors.forename: Ekaterina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gongadze
authors.forename: Samo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Penic
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Elersic
authors.forename: Andrej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kos
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veranic
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zorec
authors.forename: Ales
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iglic
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium