Bone and vascular endothelial cells in cultures on nanocrystalline diamond films

The adhesion, growth and viability of human osteoblast-like MG 63 cells and bovine pulmonary artery endothelial CPAE cells were investigated in cultures grown on nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films with either low surface roughness (RMS of 8.2 nm) or hierarchically organized surfaces made of nano-dimensional roughness NCD films deposited on Si surfaces with the original microroughness (RMS of 301.1 nm and 7.6 nm, respectively). The number and viability of both cell types on NCD films was similar to the values obtained on control tissue culture polystyrene dishes, or even better. It can be concluded that nanocrystalline diamond films give good support for adhesion and growth of osteogenic and endothelial cells, and could be used in tissue engineering applications.