The cell–material interaction plays an important role in the biomaterial design.
Biomaterials, such as diamond-like carbon (DLC), titanium (Ti), and stoichiometric
titanium nitride (TiN) as well as titanium carbo-nitrade (Ti(C, N)), seem to be good
candidates for future blood-contact applications. These materials were deposited as thin
films by the hybrid pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique to examine the influence of
such surfaces on cell behavior. The cell-material reactions were examined in static
conditions with Dictyostelium discoideum cells and then subjected to a dynamical test to
observe the cell detachment kinetics. For a given cell, detachment occurs for critical stress
values caused by the applied hydrodynamic pressure above a threshold which depends on
cell size and physicochemical properties of the substrate. Tests revealed differences in
behavior with respect to the applied coating material. The strongest cell-biomaterial
interaction was observed for the carbon-based materials compared to the titanium and
titanium nitride. The research activity was performed on fabrication and diagnostics of
materials characterized by reduction or erasing of thrombogenicity. Development of
surfaces that both favor endothelial cell monolayer reconstruction and prevent platelets
aggregation and binding was under examination. Research study was performed on soft
polyurethane surfaces (PU) by application of thin inorganic coatings. Experiments have
been performed on surface functionalization with application porous materials produced by
electrospinning. Research on scaffolds for precursors of tissue analogs and cell migration
channels was presented.
Keywords: Film deposition, microstructure, cell adhesion, biocompatibily, tissue
analog, migration channels.
