Electrospun Fiber Surface Roughness Modulates Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophage Phenotype.

Injuries to fibrous connective tissues have very little capacity for self-renewal and exhibit poor healing after injury. Phenotypic shifts in macrophages play a vital role in mediating the healing response, creating an opportunity to design immunomodulatory biomaterials which control macrophage polarization and promote regeneration. In this study, electrospun poly(-caprolactone) fibers with increasing surface roughness (SR) were produced by increasing relative humidity and inducing vapor-induced phase separation during the electrospinning process.

Deletion of Nampt in Projection Neurons of Adult Mice Leads to Motor Dysfunction, Neurodegeneration, and Death.

Intracellular nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (iNAMPT) is the rate-limiting enzyme of the mammalian NAD biosynthesis salvage pathway. Using inducible and conditional knockout (cKO) mice, we show that Nampt gene deletion in adult projection neurons leads to a progressive loss of body weight, hypothermia, motor neuron (MN) degeneration, motor function deficits, paralysis, and death. Nampt deletion causes mitochondrial dysfunction, muscle fiber type conversion, and atrophy, as well as defective synaptic function at neuromuscular junctions (NMJs).