Imogolite is a naturally occurring aluminosilicate clay mineral with a nanotube structure of 2 nm diameter and 60 nm-2 microm length. In this study, synthetic imogolite nanotubes were applied to cell culture and the properties as a scaffold were compared with those of a conventional culture dish and a carbon nanotube (CNT) scaffold. The surface characteristics of the imogolite scaffold were drastically changed with the amount of coated imogolite on the dish. With the increase of imogolite concentration, the surface morphology of the scaffolds changed from an island-like shape in random orientation to a self-organized fiber texture aligned in the same direction, and finally full coverage in a random orientation with plural layers. Silicon releasability of the scaffolds was increased with the amount of coated imogolite. Mouse osteoblast-like cells (MC3T3-E1) cultured on imogolite showed a flat-form morphology and a cytoskeleton developed in all directions in contrast to a spindle-shaped morphology developed in one direction on cell culture dishes and CNT scaffolds. The proliferation and osteoblastic functions in ALP activity and mineralization showed similar increasing tendency. The largest values were obtained from the scaffold with a high concentration of imogolite. The results indicated good biocompatibility between the cells and imogolite scaffold and the enhancement effect of proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation.