ABSTRACT
An i deal t issue eng ineering s ca old s hould p rovide a n a rchitecture t hat p romotes t he e xchange o f nutrients a nd me tabolites, p rovide s tructural i ntegrity to t he ne wly f ormed t issue, a nd p ossess t he appropriate molecular composition for proper cellular function [1]. When examining the morphology of the extracellular matrix (ECM), collagen, elastin, and other proteins provide brous structures as well as a suitable environment for speci c cellular interactions. While electrospun sca olds have been shown to mimic the physical architecture of ECM, the choice of materials, which can be natural, synthetic, or a blend of both polymers, in uences the biological properties of the resulting sca old [2]. Unfortunately, natural polymers, such a s collagen, gener ally l ack t he mechanical s trength t hat i s needed for proper tissue f unctions. M ost s ynthetic p olymers l ack b oth t he b iological a nd me chanical c haracteristics needed for tissue engineering. erefore an elastic biodegradable polymer with tunable degradation rate and with cellular recognition motifs is needed to properly engineer so tissues.
