Cells are sensitive to their underlying topography, which evoke large ranges of cell responses. The work describes an attempted caveolae-mediated phagocytosis of the surface-fixed micro-pillars by human MG-63 osteoblastic cells. This attempt to phagocytize the elevations of the Ti surface results in higher energy requirements for the cells and finally to impaired osteoblast function. Similar cell responses were observed for the osteoblasts treated with micro-particles as phagocytosis trigger and osteoblasts growing on stochastic rough Ti surfaces, commercially used as implant surfaces.