The control of cell-material interaction is a key issue in the design of suitable scaffold materials for tissue engineering because the physicochemical properties (e.g., surface chemistry, topography) of substrate materials significantly influence cell behaviors. Now, in new research, a group have studied the effect of mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) functionalization of the substrate surface in combination with topographical cues on the behavior of skeletal myoblasts.

When myoblasts were grown on planar glass substrates, the PDA ad-layer supported the adhesion and proliferation of myoblasts well, and enhanced the differentiation of myoblasts into multinucleate myotubes. Well-aligned nanofibrous scaffolds were also fabricated, to resemble the highly ordered architectures of skeletal muscle tissues, followed by PDA-based surface functionalization, suggesting that the combination of mussel-inspired surface functionalization and uniaxial topography is a useful strategy for scaffold design in skeletal tissue engineering.