Advances in the understanding of tendinopathies:Areport on theSecondHavemeyerWorkshop on equine tendon disease

Comparison of treatment outcomes for superficial digital flexor tendonitis in National Hunt racehorses

“…Platelet concentration correlates with growth factor concentration and tendon matrix gene expression and elevated leukocyte numbers can increase catabolic gene expression and reduce tendon matrix gene expression (McCarrel and Fortier, 2009;Fortier, 2011;Sundman et al, 2011). Platelet concentrations achieved with the system used in our study are comparable to those described in the literature (Sundman et al, 2011;Smith et al, 2014). The method of PRP activation can influence platelet derived growth factor concentration (Textor and Tablin, 2012), but calcium chloride activation as used in our study has been reported to be optimal.…”

“…Intra-lesional mesenchymal stem cell therapy yielded reduced re-injury rates in National Hunt racehorses (Godwin et al, 2012) and foetal-derived embryonic-and induced pluripotent stem cells show similar promise (Watts et al, 2011;McIlwraith, 2012;Smith et al, 2014).…”

Use of biomimetic microtissue spheroids and specific growth factor supplementation to improve tenocyte differentiation and adaptation to a collagen-based scaffold in vitro

“…Furthermore, in horses, specific tendons can function as elastic energy storage structures, allowing for an athletic and energy efficient gait [31]. Repetitive overloading of tendons can result in cumulative micro-damage with degenerative changes of the ECM [32,33], and these alterations are invariably associated with physical disruption of fibres, cross-links and matrix proteins [34], being secondary to impaired tenocyte metabolism possibly also due to hyperthermic insults [35] or hypoxic cell injury [36]. In all cases, the resident cell population of the tendon fails to repair this cumulative micro-damage.…”

Identification of Novel Equine (Equus caballus) Tendon Markers Using RNA Sequencing

“…The failure to achieve regeneration of injured tendon tissue is thought to be the result of an inadequate intrinsic cellular healing response [5,6]. The regenerative approach to tendon healing aims to regenerate tendon tissue through the application of growth factors or implantation of stem cells [5,7,8,9,10,11].…”