Crimped Electrospun Fibers for Tissue Engineering

: Collagen fibers exist in many parts of the body as parallel bundles with a wavy morphology, known as crimp. This crimp structure contributes to the nonlinear mechanical properties of the tissue, such as ligament, blood vessels, and intestine, which provide elasticity and prevent injury. To recapitulate the native collagen crimp structure, we report a robust method using electrospinning and post-processing to generate parallel polymeric fibers with crimp that simulate the structure-function relationship of native tissue mechanics. In addition to recreating the mechanical functionalities, these fibers are instructive for cell morphology and phenotype and can serve as a platform to study cell-material interactions in a biomimetic physical microenvironment.