Ceramic scaffolds are widely studied in the tissue engineering field due to their potential in medical applications as bone substitutes or as bone-filling materials. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of surface morphology of nanostructure thin films of ZnAl 2 O 4 prepared by spray pyrolysis and bulk pellets of polycrystalline ZnAl 2 O 4 prepared by chemical coprecipitation reaction on the in vitro cell adhesion, viability, and cell-material interactions of osteoblastic cells. Our result showed that cell attachment was significantly enhanced from 60 to 80% on the ZnAl 2 O 4 nanostructured material surface when compared with bulk ceramic surfaces. Moreover, our results showed that the balance of morphological properties of the thin film nanostructure ceramic improves cell-material interaction with enhanced spreading and filopodia with multiple cellular extensions on the surface of the ceramic and enhancing cell viability/proliferation in comparison with bulk ceramic surfaces used as control. Altogether, these results suggest that zinc aluminate nanostructured materials have a great potential to be used in dental implant and bone substitute applications.