Effect of parallel surface microgrooves and surface energy on cell growth

To evaluate the effect of surface treatment and surface microtexture on cellular behavior, smooth and microtextured silicone substrata were produced. The microtextured substrata possessed parallel surface grooves with a width and spacing of 2.0 (SilD02), 5.0 (SilD05), and 10 μm (SilD10). The groove depth was approximately 0.5 μm. Subsequently, these substrata were either left untreated (NT) or treated by ultraviolet irradiation (UV), radiofrequency glow discharge treatment (RFGD), or both (UVRFGD). After characterization of the substrata, rat dermal fibroblasts (RDF) were cultured on the UV, RFGD, and UVRFGD treated surfaces for 1, 3, 5, and 7 days. Comparison between the NT and UV substrata revealed that UV treatment did not influence the contact angles and surface energies of surfaces with a similar surface topography. However, the contact angles of the RFGD and UVRFGD substrata were significantly smaller than those of the UV and NT substrata. The dimension of the surface microevents did not influence the wettability characteristics. Cell culture experiments revealed that RDF cell growth on UV‐treated surfaces was lower than on the RFGD and UVRFGD substrata. SEM examination demonstrated that the parallel surface grooves on the SilD02 and SilD05 substrata were able to induce stronger cell orientation and alignment than the events on SilD10 surfaces. By combining all of our findings, the most important conclusion was that physicochemical parameters such as wettability and surface free energy influence cell growth but play no measurable role in the shape and orientation of cells on microtextured surfaces. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.