Bone Marrow Derived Connective Tissue Progenitor Cell Responses on Microtextured Substrates with Controlled Mechanical Cues

Understanding and optimizing cell-substrate interactions is critical to the rational design of implant materials and tissue engineering scaffolds, particularly for bone healing applications [1]. Successful bone fracture healing depends upon having an osteoactive environment. The surface topography and mechanical stiffness of bone graft materials should allow transplanted cells to retain their function and promote cell growth. In bone tissue engineering, however, the number of materials used to investigate the effects of surface topography or mechanical properties on cell response has been limited [2,3].