Early cell response to contact with biomaterial's surface

Most biomaterials at present have sufficient mechanical properties; however compliance with standards for biocompatibility is often not sufficient in clinical practice. This may be due to the complexity of biological systems in general and the diversity of individual responses to these materials by implant recipients. Significant improvement of biocompatibility must involve surface modification of implants, which in the future will make it possible to introduce individually selected types of surface modification for individual recipients. The key to this technology seems to be understanding the processes occurring at the site of contact of the implant with the tissue. Processes resulting from the stress generated by the contact of the biomaterial surfaces were observed with endothelial cells line EA.hy926, and it was demonstrated that differently modified surfaces of medical steel (polished medical steel and medical steel coated with Parylene C and nanocrystalline diamond) cause diverse cellular response in cells grown on these surfaces, on both the cellular (cell morphology and cell survival) and molecular (transcriptome and proteome profiles) levels. The herein presented observations are a good starting point not only for further research and the development of far-reaching personalization of medical implants, but also to study the potential use of cells as a specific sensor capable of recognizing different surfaces with which these cells come into contact. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 880-893, 2016.