The development of bone tissue engineering puts forward higher requirements for scaffold materials. Based on the theory of complete regeneration in regenerative medicine, bone graft substitutes are required to be osteoinducible, and to be degraded by osteoclasts and replaced with new bone tissue. Absorbable scaffold materials can be degraded by osteoclasts, and their physical and chemical properties also affect the behavior of osteoclasts. The surface microstructure of the materials is the key to initiating osteoinduction, and it has an important influence on the behavior of osteoclasts. In addition, the surface roughness of the materials can enhance the functional activity of osteoclasts within a certain range. In this paper, the research progress in material surface microstructure regulating osteoclastic cells were reviewed, in order to further explore its mechanism of action, and provide a reference for the preparation of better performance tissue engineering scaffold materials.