Circulating plasma fibronectin affects tissue insulin sensitivity, adipocyte differentiation, and transcriptional landscape of adipose tissue in mice.

Plasma fibronectin (pFN) is a hepatocyte-derived circulating extracellular matrix protein that affects cell morphology, adipogenesis, and insulin signaling of adipocytes in vitro. In this study, we show pFN accrual to adipose tissue and its contribution to tissue homeostasis in mice. Hepatocyte-specific conditional Fn1 knockout mice (Fn1-/-ALB) show a decrease in adipose tissue FN levels and enhanced insulin sensitivity of subcutaneous (inguinal), visceral (epididymal) adipose tissue on a normal diet.

A collagen-based hydrogel containing tacrolimus for bone tissue engineering.

Bone tissue engineering aims to develop bone graft structure that can heal bone defects without using autografts or allografts. The current study was conducted to promote bone regeneration using a collagen type I hydrogel containing tacrolimus. For this purpose, different amounts of tacrolimus (10 μg/ml, 100 μg/ml, and 1000 μg/ml) were loaded into the hydrogel.

Fabrication and characterization of collagen-hydroxyapatite-based composite scaffolds containing doxycycline via freeze-casting method for bone tissue engineering.

In this study, hydroxyapatite nanoparticles containing 10% doxycycline, a structural isomer of tetracycline, was prepared by the co-precipitation method. It was added to collagen solution for the preparation of the scaffold with freeze-casting method in order to develop a composite scaffold with both antibacterial and osteoinductive properties for repairing bone defects. The scaffolds were evaluated regarding their morphology, porosity, degradation and cellular response.