Enhanced cellular affinity for poly(lactic acid) surfaces modified with titanium oxide

A surface modification method of biocompatible poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with titanium oxide (TiOx) is proposed. Tetraethoxytitanium(IV) (TEOT) was used to construct a TiOx network with a few residual ethyl groups via an acid-catalyzed sol–gel reaction exploiting surface segregation. The surface of the resulting PLA-TiOx composite films was flat and homogeneous when the TEOT loading was <5 wt%. The properties of the PLA-TiOx composite films were examined by microscopy to explore the fibroblast affinity for the scaffold surface. The number of cells attached to the PLA-TiOx composite films increased with increasing surface TiOx content. Cell morphology was also dependent upon the surface TiOx content, and the attached cells on the composite film were better spread than those on the pristine PLA film. These results clearly show that our proposed method is a useful technique to improve the affinity of cells for PLA surfaces.