Fig. 4: Hydrogel delivery of Ndrg2-KO dendritic cells promotes healing of diabetic and non-diabetic wounds.

a Schematic of cell seeding experiments on excisional wounds in wild-type mice (n = 5 per group). b Wounds treated with Ndrg2-KO dendritic cells (DCs) healed significantly faster and were completely re-epithelialized on day 11, 5 days faster than wounds treated with control DCs (nucleofection with 3 non-targeting sgRNAs) or blank hydrogels. c Masson’s trichrome staining of explanted wound tissue (day 16) of the three groups. Zoomed-in panels show the regenerated epidermis. d Left: Relative wound area over time (Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test: Day 4: *P < 0.05, day 11: **P < 0.01, day 12: *P < 0.05, day 14: *P < 0.05, Ndrg2-KO: n = 8 biological replicates, Control: n = 8 biological replicates, Blank: n = 10 biological replicates. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM.), Right: Probability of wound closure in the three groups (reverse Kaplan–Meier estimate, ****P < 0.0001, n = 5 biological replicates per group). e Comparison of dermal thickness of wound tissue from the three experimental groups. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test: ****P < 0.0001, **P = 0.02, n = 12 biological replicates for Ndrg2-KO, n = 11 biological replicates for Control, n = 5 biological replicates for Blank. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM. f Immunofluorescent staining, and quantification of wound tissue for CD31 marking blood vessels. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test: *P < 0.05, Ndrg2-KO: n = 5 biological replicates, Control: n = 10 biological replicates, Blank: n = 8 biological replicates. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM. Scale bars: 200 µm in overview, 100 µm in magnified images. g Schematic of cell seeding experiments on excisional wounds in diabetic mice. h Wounds treated with Ndrg2-KO DCs healed significantly faster and were epithelialized on day 16, 5 days faster than wounds treated with control DCs or blank hydrogels. i Relative wound area over time in diabetic wounds. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test: Day 13: *P < 0.05, day 16: *P = 0.05, day 19: **P = 0.01, n = 5 biological replicates per group. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM. j Immunofluorescent staining, and quantification of diabetic wound tissue (day 21) for CD31. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test: *P < 0.05, n = 7 biological replicates for Ndrg2-KO, n = 4 biological replicates for Control, n = 7 biological replicates for Blank. Scale bars: 200 µm in overview, 100 µm in magnified images. Data are presented as mean values ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.