Adhesion of bone and vascular cells on carbon fibre-reinforced carbon composites coated with a fullerene layer

Carbon fibre-reinforced carbon composites (CFRC), i.e. materials promising for hard tissue surgery, were coated by a fullerene layer in order to strengthen the material surface and create its nanostructure pattern which is known to be attractive for colonization with bone cells. The fullerene layer was relatively resistant to wear, at least swabbing with cotton, rinsing with liquids and exposure to cells and proteolytic enzymes. Both human osteoblast-like MG 63 cells and rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) in 1-and 2-day-old cultures adhered to these surfaces in Iower numbers in comparison with the control uncoated material and tissue culture polystyrene. In addition, the VSMC on the fullerene-coated surfaces were less spread. The Iower cell adhesion was probably due to a relatively high hydrophobicity of fullerenes. On the other hand, the spreading of MG 63 cells was comparable to that observed on the control surfaces, and these cells also assembled dot-like vinculin-containing focal adhesion plaques and relatively rich fine filamentous beta-actin cytoskeleton. We suppose that the cell adhesion may be enhanced by derivatization of fullerenes with specific chemical functional groups or peptidic ligands for cell adhesion receptors.