Azizeh Rahmani Del Bakhshayesh - Department of Tissue Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Sepideh Saghati - Department of Tissue Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Azadeh Montaseri - Department of Anatomical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Abolfazl Akbarzadeh - Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are a breath-through research fields and their sight is to create different tissues. Biomaterials, as scaffolds, have a vital role for equipping synthetic extracellular matrix (ECM) environments and three-dimensional templates for tissue regeneration. Mimicing specific particulars of the natural extracellular matrix are often an important issue for the scaffolds. Meanwhile, nanofibrous scaffolds which mimic main aspects of the natural matrix, present an inspiring strategy to resituate functions or attain favorable reactions for tissue engineering. Since the nanofibers have a high surface area, they are considered useful for different biomedical applications, tissue engineering and drug delivery. For achieving sustained delivery of different agents in drug delivery and for enhancing cellular response in tissue engineering, surface of nanofibers is functionalized. Different ligands for cell recognition and various bioactive molecules such as enzymes, cytokines, drugs and polysaccharides have been used for this purpose. Surface functionalization enhances biomimicry of microenvironments. Modified nanofibers are enabled to be used for tissue engineering and drug/gene delivery.

Nanofibers, Biomimetic electrospun scaffolds, Surface modification, Tissue engineering, Drug delivery