Designing load-bearing tissues that match the mechanical performance of native ones adds extra challenges to tissue engineering. Electrospinning of biodegradable polymer fibres into oriented sheets enables the production of laminate scaffolds; when seeded with mesenchymal stem cells and cultured for 10 weeks, these scaffolds replicate the mechanical properties of native annulus fibrosus.
- Nandan L. Nerurkar
- Brendon M. Baker
- Robert L. Mauck