Electrospun Gelatin Constructs with Tunable Fiber Orientation Promote Directed

The field of therapeutic angiogenesis has been predominantly concentrated in modalities that in-corporate pro-angiogenic growth factors and/or cells within polymeric constructs that are im-planted into the ischemic region. There is growing evidence that construct architecture can signif-icantly affect growth factor activity, cellular viability and differentiation potential. Electrospinning is an attractive but simple scaffold fabrication technique that offers several advantages over tradi-tional fabrication approaches to prepare highly organized structures for therapeutic angiogenesis applications. We recently described the fabrication of nanofibrous scaffolds with aligned fiber orientation that directed cell migration and orientation (i.e. human umbilical vein endothelial cells). Herein we demonstrate the ability of bFGF containing nanofibrous gelatin B scaffolds with controlled fiber orientation to promote capillary formation in vivo. Aligned scaffolds loaded wit