Figure 3.

Representative morphologies of MSCs. (A) PEEK, (B) smooth titanium, and (C) rough, acid-etched endoskeleton surface, at 24 h. Immunofluorescence was carried out to examine the focal adhesion protein vinculin (green), the actin cytoskeleton (red), and the cell nuclei (blue). Additionally, a gray scale depiction of the surface was obtained with reflected DIC. The results demonstrated the trends observed in Figure 2 with cells on the smooth surfaces moving toward an elongated spindle-shaped morphology, whereas the cells on the rough surface demonstrated a range of morphologies from spindle-shaped cells to cuboidal and stellate-shaped cells. In particular, the cuboidal and stellate cells in C. are representative of morphologies expected of osteoblastic differentiation. Scale bar indicating 50 μm applies to (A–C).