Technologies to increase tissue vascularity are critically important to the fields of tissue engineering and cardiovascular medicine. Currently, limited technologies exist to encourage angiogenesis and arteriogenesis in a controlled manner. In the present study, we describe an injectable controlled release system consisting of VEGF encapsulated in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs). The majority of VEGF was released gradually over 2-4 days from the NPs as determined by an ELISA release kinetics experiment. An in vitro aortic ring bioassay was used to verify the bioactivity of VEGF-NPs compared with empty NPs and no treatment. A mouse femoral artery ischemia model was then used to measure revascularization in VEGF-NP-treated limbs compared with limbs treated with naked VEGF and saline. 129/Sv mice were anesthetized with isoflurane, and a region of the common femoral artery and vein was ligated and excised. Mice were then injected with VEGF-NPs, naked VEGF, or saline. After 4 days, three-dimensional microcomputed tomography angiography was used to quantify vessel growth and morphology. Mice that received VEGF-NP treatment showed a significant increase in total vessel volume and vessel connectivity compared with 5 microg VEGF, 2.5 microg VEGF, and saline treatment (all P < 0.001). When the yield of the fabrication process was taken into account, VEGF-NPs were over an order of magnitude more potent than naked VEGF in increasing blood vessel volume. Differences between the VEGF-NP group and all other groups were even greater when only small-sized vessels under 300 mum diameter were analyzed. In conclusion, sustained VEGF delivery via PLGA NPs shows promise for encouraging blood vessel growth in tissue engineering and cardiovascular medicine applications.

Currently, the use of optogenetic sensitization of retinal cells combined with activation/inhibition has the potential to be an alternative to retinal implants that would require electrodes inside every single neuron for high visual resolution. However, clinical translation of optogenetic activation for restoration of vision suffers from the drawback that the narrow spectral sensitivity of an opsin requires active stimulation by a blue laser or a light emitting diode with much higher intensities than ambient light. In order to allow an ambient light-based stimulation paradigm, we report the development of a ‘white-opsin’ that has broad spectral excitability in the visible spectrum. The cells sensitized with white-opsin showed excitability at an order of magnitude higher with white light compared to using only narrow-band light components. Further, cells sensitized with white-opsin produced a photocurrent that was five times higher than Channelrhodopsin-2 under similar photo-excitation conditions. The use of fast white-opsin may allow opsin-sensitized neurons in a degenerated retina to exhibit a higher sensitivity to ambient white light. This property, therefore, significantly lowers the activation threshold in contrast to conventional approaches that use intense narrow-band opsins and light to activate cellular stimulation.

Tissue invasion and metastasis are leading causes of death among cancer patients due to cells escaping from the primary tumor and invading distant sites. To better understand these phenomena and develop efficient therapeutic regimens against different types of malignancies, there is a need for exclusive cellular and molecular examination of migrating cells. In this study, aggressive brain cancer cells, G55, migrating through confined microchannels were directly extracted and used for subsequent proteomic analysis via Western Blot and/or immunostaining quantification. The method was based on an engineered Polydimethylsiloxane microchannel platform that facilitated the exclusive extraction of migrating cells and their contents while preventing non-migrating (or proliferatingdenoted as 2D) cell contamination. The migrating cells in physical confinement of the microchannels were exclusively examined for their protein expression. They were found with increased expression of Vimentin, approximately 2.5-fold higher than 2D cells. On the other hand, the migrating cells showed significantly decreased β3-Tubulin and Met signal compared to 2D cells. The differences in biomarker expression between migrating cells and non-migrating cells revealed by this study provided an insight into key features of cancer invasion and metastasis. The successful outcome of this research suggests improved targets for ceasing different types of malignancies. REVISED

Clinical use of neurally controlled prosthetics has advanced in recent years, but limitations still remain, including lacking fine motor control and sensory feedback. Indwelling multi-electrode arrays, cuff electrodes, and regenerative sieve electrodes have been reported to serve as peripheral neural interfaces, though long-term stability of the nerve-electrode interface has remained a formidable challenge. We recently developed a regenerative multi-electrode interface (REMI) that is able to record neural activity as early as seven days post-implantation. While this activity might represent normal neural depolarization during axonal regrowth, it can also be the result of altered nerve regeneration around the REMI. This study evaluated high-throughput expression levels of 84 genes involved in nerve injury and repair, and the histological changes that occur in parallel to this early neural activity. Animals exhibiting spike activity increased from 29% to 57% from 7 to 14 days following REMI implantation with a corresponding increase in firing rate of 113%. Two weeks after implantation, numbers of neurofilament-positive axons in the control and REMI implanted nerves were comparable, and in both cases the number of myelinated axons was low. During this time, expression levels of genes related to nerve injury and repair were similar in regenerated nerves, both in the presence or absence of the electrode array. Together, these results indicate that the early neural activity is intrinsic to the regenerating axons, and not induced by the REMI neurointerface.