Dose-dependent enhancement of osteoblast cell adhesion, spreading and proliferation on plasma-carboxylated poly(etheretherketone) surface

Poly(etheretherketone) (PEEK) possesses bone-like stiffness and excellent biocompatibility but yet suffers from bioinertness and poor osteoblasts adhesion. In this work, plasma polymerization was employed to produce carboxylated PEEK surface containing 5.9-13.4% -COOH groups, expressed as a percent of total carbon content. Pre-osteoblasts exhibited decreased cell adhesion and proliferation with increasing -COOH surface concentration, whereas pre-osteoblasts spreading increased with increasing -COOH surface density. Our results illustrate that optimization of -COOH surface content could produce significant enhancement in osteoblasts adherence, spreading and proliferation.