Fig 2: Visfatin reduces type II collagen and aggrecan expression and induces the expression of MMP3 in human NP cells. (a-i) Western blot and RT-qPCR analysis of aggrecan, type II collagen, and MMP3 expressions in NP cells cultured with different doses of visfatin. (j, k, l) Western blot and RT-qPCR analysis of type II collagen level in NP cells treated with visfatin (8 ng/mL) at different time points. CTR, control. n = 3, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 versus control. The data are represented as mean ± standard deviation

Fig 3: eNAMPT is identified as a NKomega-M1omega axis mediator in human NSCLC through the single-cell data analysis The data were produced utilizing publicly-available (a-m) or in-house human specimens (p) or in-house murine specimens (n, o). For o, sorted iNOS+M1 cells from murine spleen cells were used. a. UMAP plot of 50,215 cells colored by clusters in an integrated cohort. b. UMAP feature plots showing the expression levels of certain genes. c. Distribution of CCL4L1_NK and TIGIT_NK among cell states (upper and right) and along pseudotime (lower). d. Heat map of gene expression along pseudotime. e. Heatmap of gene expression in different cell states. f. Volcano plot showing marker genes of NOS2_mono/macro. g. GSEA results from NOS2_mono/macro. h. Heat map of literature-derived signatures scores in macrophages. i. M1omega score in NOS2_mono/macro, PPARG_mono/macro and SPP1_mono/macro. j-k. NicheNet analysis shows the potential ligands expressed by neighboring cells that presumably affected the marker genes of TIGIT_NK or NOS2_mono/macro (left). Ligand activity indicates the ability of each ligand to predict the target genes, and better predictive ligands are thus ranked higher (middle). The regulatory potential score indicates the confidence that a particular ligand can regulate the expression of a particular target gene (right). l-m. GSEA plot from potential target genes of TIGIT_NK (l) and NOS2_mono/macro (m). n. Representative flow cytometric analysis (left) and statistical plot (middle) for MFI of Annexin V + LLC induced by sorted iNOS+M1 with antecedent NK existed or NAMPT inhibitor (FK866) supplement. (n = 4) o. Bioenergetic profiles of NK, NKomega, M and M1omega with NAMPT inhibitor (FK866) are shown. The Seahorse XF cell Mito stress test was used to define the bioenergetic profiles. The changes in ECAR and OCR for the time indicated during an XF24 extracellular flux analyzer run are plotted. The dash lines indicate the injection time points. FCCP, carbonyl cyanide-4 (trifluoromethoxy) phenylhydrazone. p. Representative example of NLRP4-low and NLRP4-high patients. Tumor staining by multiplexed IHC shows the spatial distributions of NAMPT + M1, NAMPT + NK and eNAMPT in tumor interstitial fluid. Images are representative of at least three images for individual mice. DAPI, 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. Data represent mean ± SEM; ns p > 0.05, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001,and ****p < 0.0001 from unpaired Student’s t-tests. The p-values of gene enrichment analysis were calculated by R package GSEA