Impact of micro-scale regular topography on cell and tissue behaviors

Physical cues of a biomaterial surface such as topography have received extensive attention due to their ease of engineering and reproducible bioeffects. Although many studies have been reported, the relationship between the topography of biomaterial surface and cell/tissue behaviors could not be well evaluated due to the diversified topographies and experimental environments used in these studies. Here we designed 11 patterns (triangle, rectangle, circle, etc.), and employed them to fabricate two types of topographies (micropit and microcolumn), resulting in 22 surface topographies. We conducted comparative assessments of the bioeffects of these microtopographies on cell and tissue in vitro and in vivo. Our results revealed that grooves formed by continuous micropits exhibited a greater ability to accelerate cell migration. Among them, grooves composed of triangular micropits exhibited the strongest enhancement of cell migration in vitro, reducing fibrous tissue encapsulation and promoting vascular formation in vivo.