Scaffolds pre-seeded with fibroblasts promote formation of ECM with a high degree of basket-weave structure, resembling unwounded skin tissue.

<p><b>(A)</b> Representative image of a cross-section of a wound bed harvested from a rat implanted with a cell-seeded microporous scaffold. White dashed line designates the area of basket-weave matrix. Scale bar = 40 μm. <b>(B)</b> Graph depicts the average basket-weave area of harvested tissues containing scaffolds seeded for 4 days with fibroblasts (4d), scaffolds seeded for 1 day (1d), acellular porous scaffolds, and sham wounds (<i>n</i> = 5 rats per group, with multiple microscopic fields examined per specimen). A repeated measure Anova was performed to compare significance between treatment groups. *Represents p<0.01 for all treatment groups that are significantly different from each other within the same time point. ^# Represents treatment groups significantly different than their respective groups at the 7 day time point (p<0.05).