The effects of the fiber alignment on the behavior of rat osteosarcoma and mouse osteoblast cells

Electrospinning is a promising method to construct biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, but the efficacy depends on how the substrate topography affects cell function. In order to test whether the response of normal and cancerous cells differs, we tested the response of mouse osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) and rat osteosarcoma (ROS). Poly (methyl methacrylate) fibers were electrospun into rectangular meshes with fiber diameters of 8.64 mu on a rigid support. Examination of cell morphology revealed that both types of cells can adhere to the scaffolds. In both cases the cells on the fibers were far more oriented than those on the planar surface. The aspect ration of the MC3T3 cells though was significantly larger than that of the ROS cells, indicating that cancer cells may not be able to adapt to the underlying morphology as easily as normal cells.