Abstract：Electrospinning technique has received increasing attention in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine community due to its capability of making biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds for engineering a variety of tissues. However, one of the major problems with electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds is that the densely arranged nanofibers and small pores (or interstices) in the scaffolds would inhibit proper infiltration of the cells and consequently limit tissue regeneration in vivo. To address this challenge, in recent years many concepts or strategies applicable at the electrospinning procedures have been devised to enlarge pore size of the electrospun scaffolds. This article addressed importance of porosity, pore size, and pore interconnectivity pertaining to tissue engineering scaffolds, and provided a detailed review on various approaches available for preparing 3 D macroporous nanofibrous scaffolds from electrospinning. Efficiencies, challenges, and prospects in the application of such electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering were also briefly discussed.
