Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the development of the hydrogel components for post-discectomy care of IVDs. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the development of the hydrogel components for post-discectomy care of IVDs.

From: Injectable ECM-mimetic dynamic hydrogels abolish ferroptosis-induced post-discectomy herniation through delivering nucleus pulposus progenitor cell-derived exosomes

Fig. 1

a Engineering process of NPPC-derived exosomes and their incorporation into the injectable hydrogel based on ECM analogs. b A sketch showing treatment of IDD rats by HACS@CPP-miR-Exo. c The HACS@CPP-miR-Exo therapy potently inhibits the ferroptosis programs in NPCs through leveraging IRF8-STAT1 pathway, leading to enhanced post-discectomy IVD recovery. OCS oxidized chondroitin sulfate, HA-ADH adipic acid dihydrazide-modified hyaluronic acid, CPP cell-penetrating peptide, CPP-miR-Exo miR-221-3p overexpressed NPPC-derived exosomes with CPP modification, IRF8 interferon-regulatory factor 8, STAT1 signal transducer and activator of transcription 1. Schematic illustrations were generated using BioRender (Wang, V., 2025; accessible at: https://BioRender.com/i62o243). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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