“…To date, four distinct methods have been reported to modulate CFD: reverse dialysis [6], evaporation [7], plastic compression (PC) [8], and continuous injection [9]. These techniques allow for the fabrication of dense collagen (DC) gels with a fibrillar density within the range of 5e25 wt%, which have been used as 3D ECM models [10,11] and to engineer several tissues, such as osteoid [12e14], dura mater [15], nucleus pulpous [16,17], skin [18,19], bladder [20], cornea [21e24], tendon [25], airways [26], and blood vessels [26]. Nevertheless, none of these methods have allowed for the formation of anisotropic DC gels [3], a feature that has been achieved in highlyhydrated collagen gels (fibrillar density < 1 wt%) through the application of either electric and magnetic fields [27e29], microfluidic devices [30,31], extrusion of crosslinked collagen [32], micro-and nano-topographical cues during self-assembly [33,34], or strain during fibril formation [35].…”