Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of the European Ceramic Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jeurceramsoc Femtosecond laser multi-patterning of zirconia for screening of cell-surface interactions Ana-Maria Stanciuc a,b,1 , Quentin Flamant c,d,1 , Christoph Martin Sprecher a , Mauro Alini a , Marc Anglada c,d , Marianna Peroglio a, ⁎ a AO Research Institute Davos, Clavadelerstrasse 8, 7270 Davos Platz, Switzerland b Université de Lyon, INSA-Lyon, MATEIS UMR 5510, Villeurbanne Cedex, France c Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Diagonal Besòs–Edif. DBI, CIEFMA, Av. d’Eduard Maristany, 10-14, 08019 Barcelona, Spain d Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Campus Diagonal Besòs–Edif. DBC, Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Av. d’Eduard Maristany, 10-14, 08019 Barcelona, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Zirconia Laser Surface Topography Pattern Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells ABSTRACT Yttria-stabilised tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (3Y-TZP) bioinert ceramics combine excellent strength and toughness, good aesthetics, high resistance to corrosion and absence of allergic reaction. However, improved osseointegration is needed as higher marginal bone loss was sometimes reported. In the present work, 3Y-TZP multi-patterned samples for rapid screening of cell-surface interactions were fabricated by femtosecond laser micromachining. Pits with well-defined edges and micrometric precision in pit diameter, depth and spacing were produced, as determined by white light interferometry. Pits showed a nanometric granular texture on the sidewalls and ripples at pit bottom, as attested by scanning electron microscopy. Focused ion beam analyses indicated limited laser-induced damage. Micropatterns impacted human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) size and morphology. Cell area and aspect ratio were mainly influenced by pit diameter, while solidity and circularity were affected by both pit diameter and depth. The pattern 30 μm diameter/10 μm depth induced the strongest osteoblastic hMSC commitment. 1. Introduction Yttria-stabilised tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (3Y-TZP, short: zirconia) are biocompatible and exhibit the best combination of strength and toughness of single-phase oxide ceramics. They were in- troduced as biomaterials in the end of the 1980s to overcome the limitations of alumina in the field of orthopedics [1]. While monolithic zirconia has been almost abandoned for orthopaedic applications, in the last decade its use in restorative dentistry has been growing fast [2]. In particular, its good aesthetics, high resistance to corrosion and the absence of allergic reaction make zirconia a good candidate to replace titanium for the fabrication of dental implants [3]. However, while some authors have described a similar performance of zirconia and ti- tanium implants [4,5], others have reported a higher failure rate and a higher marginal bone loss when comparing zirconia to titanium [6,7]. According to the latter, the use of zirconia implants does not appear recommendable at the moment except for specific cases (e.g. allergy to titanium), and there is a need for further research before generalising their clinical use. The key to solve the problem of bone loss mentioned above is to achieve a good osseointegration, which depends on numerous para- meters such as topography and chemistry [8]. In particular, it has been shown that microrough implants exhibit a better osseointegration than smooth ones [9]. Nevertheless, what is the optimal topography for a dental implant remains unclear [10,11]. One of the reasons for this lack of information is that with a classical approach the investigation of the influence of surface topography on cell response requires experiments on a large series of homogenous, individual specimens for each condi- tion tested. Testing a high number of surface types is thus lengthy and costly. To overcome this problem, there is a strong interest in developing methods to rapidly screen cell-surface interactions, and one convenient approach is the fabrication of multi-patterned samples: it allows testing several surface types at once, thus drastically reducing the number of http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2017.08.019 Received 27 February 2017; Received in revised form 10 August 2017; Accepted 14 August 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. 1 The first two authors equally contributed to the manuscript. E-mail address: marianna.peroglio@aofoundation.org (M. Peroglio). Abbreviations: hMSC, Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells; FIB, Focused Ion Beam; FC, large flat cells; RS, spindle shaped rapid self-renewing cells; LTD, low temperature degradation; SEM, Scanning Electron Microscopy; WLI, white light interferometry; 3Y-TZP, tetragonal zirconia polycrystals stabilised with 3 mol% yttria Journal of the European Ceramic Society xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0955-2219/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Stanciuc, A.-M., Journal of the European Ceramic Society (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2017.08.019