Anisotropic collagen fibrillogenesis within microfabricated scaffolds: implications for biomimetic tissue engineering

Anisotropic collagen fibrillogenesis is demonstrated within the pores of an accordion-like honeycomb poly(glycerol sebacate) tissue engineering scaffold. Confocal reflectance microscopy and image analysis demonstrate increased fibril distribution order, fibril density, and alignment in accordion-like honeycomb pores compared with collagen gelled unconstrained. Finite element modeling predicts how collagen gel and scaffold mechanics couple in matching native heart muscle stiffness and anisotropy.