Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Anatase and Rutile TiO(2) Thin Films on CHO-K1 Cells in Vitro

Cytotoxicity of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) thin films on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells was evaluated after 24, 48 and 72 h of culture. The TiO(2) thin films were deposited using direct current magnetron sputtering. These films were post-deposition annealed at different temperatures (300, 500 and 800 °C) toward the anatase to rutile phase transformation. The root-mean-square (RMS) surface roughness of TiO(2) films went from 2.8 to 8.08 nm when the annealing temperature was increased from 300 to 800 °C. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) results showed that the TiO(2) films’ thickness values fell within the nanometer range (290–310 nm). Based on the results of the tetrazolium dye and trypan blue assays, we found that TiO(2) thin films showed no cytotoxicity after the aforementioned culture times at which cell viability was greater than 98%. Independently of the annealing temperature of the TiO(2) thin films, the number of CHO-K1 cells on the control substrate and on all TiO(2) thin films was greater after 48 or 72 h than it was after 24 h; the highest cell survival rate was observed in TiO(2) films annealed at 800 °C. These results indicate that TiO(2) thin films do not affect mitochondrial function and proliferation of CHO-K1 cells, and back up the use of TiO(2) thin films in biomedical science.