A controlled surface geometry of polyaniline doped titania nanotubes biointerface for accelerating MC3T3-E1 cells growth in bone tissue engineering

In this work, titanium oxide nanotubes (TNTs) have been developed via electrochemical anodization process, followed by potentiostatic electropolymerization of aniline monomer to achieve TNTs coated polyaniline (PANI) substrate using cyclic voltammetry method at low temperature. Prior to PANI decoration, crystallinity of titanium oxide nanotubes (TNTs) was obtained by annealing the substrate at 420 °C for two hours. The physicochemical characterization of the as-prepared TNTs and TNTs/PANI were analyzed using FE-SEM, AFM, XRD and FT-IR techniques. A coating of PANI forms a sheath around the nanotubes and protects them from metallic corrosion. Large surface area to volume ratio of TNTs showed improved properties in biocompatibility, thermal stability, electrical conductivity, biomineralization and hydrophilicity after coating with PANI, an electroactive conducting polymer. In addition, the TNTs/PANI exhibited an effective platform to enhance attachment, development and proliferation of preosteoblast (MC3T3-E1) cells which opens a new avenue in the realm of bone tissue engineering. The cells’ morphology to their surrounding topography, development, or proliferation, and osteogenic-related markers (such as ALP increased level, collagen type I secretion) were also analysed. Such types of surface modification tailoring on titanium nanotubes could offer a potential and a promising scaffold material for biomedical implantation in bone tissue engineering.