Vascular endothelial growth factor protein and gene delivery by novel nanomaterials for promoting liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy

Figure 1 Schematic Illustration of liver after partial hepatectomy. After partial hepatectomy, hepatocytes begin to proliferate and release vascular endothelial growth factor, which promotes the proliferation of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells (BM SPCs) and reconstruction of hepatic sinusoids. BM SPCs secrete hepatocyte growth factor, which provides positive feedback and promotes hepatocytes proliferation. This figure was created with BioRender (BioRender.com). VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; HGF: Hepatocyte growth factor; BM SPCs: Bone marrow-derived progenitor cells.

Figure 2 Preparation of hydrogel nanofiber. A: Illustration of the electrostretching setup; B: Effect of alginate solution feeding rate on the diameter of hydrogel microfibres; C-F: Various crosslinking mechanisms have been employed to crosslink alginate, gelatin, fibrin and hyaluronic acid hydrogel microfibers; G: Hydrogel microfibres of any desired length can be prepared; H: When dispersed in water, alginate hydrogel fibres formed a loose network of hydrogel fibres; I: A 10-g metal pillar was lifted with an alginate hydrogel microfibre bundle; J and K: A micro-knot was made with two alginate hydrogel microfibres; L and M: Beyond microfibre bundles, these hydrogel microfibres can also be fabricated into other forms like fibrous films (L) and self-supporting hydrogel tubes (M). Reproduced with permission[32]. Citation: Zhang S, Liu X, Barreto-Ortiz SF, Yu Y, Ginn BP, DeSantis NA, Hutton DL, Grayson WL, Cui FZ, Korgel BA, Gerecht S, Mao HQ. Creating polymer hydrogel microfibres with internal alignment via electrical and mechanical stretching. Biomaterials 2014; 35: 3243-3251. Copyright© The Authors 2013, Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Figure 3 Illustration of PEI-DNA nanoparticle preparation via flash nanocomplexation and the proposed trafficking steps along the GI tract. Reproduced with permission[49]. Citation: Nie T, He Z, Zhou Y, Zhu J, Chen K, Liu L, Leong KW, Mao HQ, Chen Y. Surface Coating Approach to Overcome Mucosal Entrapment of DNA Nanoparticles for Oral Gene Delivery of Glucagon-like Peptide 1. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11: 29593-29603. Copyright© The Authors 2019. Published by American Chemical Society.