An important objective in bone tissue engineering is to fabricate biomimetic three-dimensional scaffolds that stimulate mineralization for rapid regeneration of bone. In this work, scaffolds of electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fibers (diameter = 286 +/- 14 nm) were coated with a solgel derived bioactive glass (BG) and evaluated in vitro for potential applications in bone repair. Structural and chemical analyses showed that the BG coating was homogeneously deposited on the PVA fibers. In vitro cell culture studies showed that the BG-coated PVA scaffold had a greater capacity to support proliferation of osteogenic MC3T3-E1 cells, alkaline phosphatase activity, and mineralization than the uncoated PVA scaffold. The BG coating improved the tensile strength of the PVA scaffold from 18 +/- 2 MPa to 21 +/- 2 MPa, but reduced the elongation to failure from 94 +/- 4% to 64 +/- 5%. However, immersion of the BG-coated PVA scaffolds in a simulated body fluid for 5 days resulted in an increase in the tensile strength (24 +/- 2 MPa) and elongation to failure (159 +/- 4%). Together, the results show that these BG-coated PVA scaffolds could be considered as candidate materials for bone tissue engineering applications. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 2012.