Harnessing Cell Dynamic Responses on Magnetoelectric Nanocomposite Films to Promote Osteogenic Differentiation

The binding of cell integrins to proteins adsorbed on the material surface is a highly dynamic process critical for guiding cellular responses. However, temporal dynamic regulation of adsorbed proteins to meet the spatial conformation requirement of integrins for a certain cellular response remains a great challenge. Here, an active CoFe₂O₄/poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) nanocomposite film, which was demonstrated to be an obvious surface potential variation (Δ V ≈ 93 mV) in response to the applied magnetic field intensity (0-3000 Oe), was designed to harness the dynamic binding of integrin-adsorbed proteins by in situ controlling of the conformation of adsorbed proteins. Experimental investigation and molecular dynamics simulation confirmed the surface potential-induced conformational change in the adsorbed proteins. Cells cultured on nanocomposite films indicated that cellular responses in different time periods (adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation) required distinct magnetic field intensity, and synthetically programming the preferred magnetic field intensity of each time period could further enhance the osteogenic differentiation through the FAK/ERK signaling pathway. This work therefore provides a distinct concept that dynamically controllable modulation of the material surface property fitting the binding requirement of different cell time periods would be more conducive to achieving the desired osteogenic differentiation.