Nanograined (NG)/ultrafine-grained (UFG) structures show enhanced cellular response of pre-osteoblasts. Cell proliferation, viability, and morphology on phase-reversion annealed NG/UFG austenitic stainless steel were observed to be favorably modulated in comparison to conventional coarse-grained austenitic stainless steel. The improvement in cellular response is ascribed to NG/UFG structure and hydrophilicity of the cell substrate.