A surface modification technique based on poly(dopamine) deposition developed from oxidative polymerization of dopamine is known to promote cell adhesion to several cell-resistant substrates. In this study this technique was applied to articular cartilage tissue engineering. The adhesion and proliferation of rabbit chondrocytes were evaluated on poly(dopamine)-coated polymer films, such as polycaprolactone, poly(L-lactide), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and polyurethane, biodegradable polymers that are commonly used in tissue engineering. Cell adhesion was significantly increased by merely 15 s of dopamine incubation, and 4 min incubation was enough to reach maximal cell adhesion, a 1.35-2.69-fold increase compared with that on the untreated substrates. Cells also grew much faster on the poly(dopamine)-coated substrates than on untreated substrates. The increase in cell affinity for poly(dopamine)-coated substrates was demonstrated via enhancement of the immobilization of serum adhesive proteins such as fibronectin. When the poly(dopamine)-coating technique was applied to three-dimensional (3-D) polyurethane scaffolds, the proliferation of chondrocytes and the secretion of glycosaminoglycans were increased compared with untreated scaffolds. Our results show that the deposition of a poly(dopamine) layer on 3-D porous scaffolds is a simple and promising strategy for articular cartilage tissue engineering, and may be applied to other types of tissue engineering.