Periodic Lamellae-Based Nanofibers for Precise Immunomodulation to Treat Inflammatory Bone Loss in Periodontitis.

Periodontitis is a common oral disease accompanied by inflammatory bone loss. The pathological characteristics of periodontitis usually accompany an imbalance in the periodontal immune microenvironment, leading to difficulty in bone regeneration. Therefore, effective treatment strategies are needed to modulate the immune environment in order to treat periodontitis. Here, we developed a highly-oriented periodic lamellae poly(ε-caprolactone) electrospun nanofibers (PLN) by surface-directed epitaxial crystallization. Our in vitro results showed that the PLN could precisely modulate macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype. Macrophages polarized by PLN significantly enhanced the migration and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. Notably, results suggested that the topographical cues presented by PLN can modulate macrophage polarization by activating YAP, which reciprocally inhibits the NF-κB signaling pathway. The in vivo results indicated that PLN can inhibit inflammatory bone loss and facilitate bone regeneration in periodontitis. Our findings suggest that topographical nanofibers with periodic lamellae is a promising strategy for modulating immune environment to treat inflammatory bone loss in periodontitis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.