The Role of Scaffolds in Tendon Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Tendons are unique forms of connective tissue aiming to transmit the mechanical force of muscle contraction to the bones. Tendon injury may be due to direct trauma or might be secondary to overuse injury and age-related degeneration, leading to inflammation, weakening and subsequent rupture. Current traditional treatment strategies focus on pain relief, reduction of the inflammation and functional restoration. Tendon repair surgery can be performed in people with tendon injuries to restore the tendon’s function, with re-rupture being the main potential complication. Novel therapeutic approaches that address the underlying pathology of the disease is warranted. Scaffolds represent a promising solution to the challenges associated with tendon tissue engineering. The ideal scaffold for tendon tissue engineering needs to exhibit physiologically relevant mechanical properties and to facilitate functional graft integration by promoting the regeneration of the native tissue.

Tendon Tissue Repair in Prospective of Drug Delivery, Regenerative Medicines, and Innovative Bioscaffolds

“…Tissue engineering and scaffolds are aimed at preventing rerupture and minimizing inflammation by providing mechanical support to accelerate healing tendon process, by facilitating cell recruitment at wound site, promoting cell proliferation, and stimulating ECM production and the proper organization of collagen fibers [22]. Preliminary studies support the idea that scaffolds can provide an alternative to conventional treatments for tendon augmentation with an enormous therapeutic potentiality [10]. However, available data are lacking to allow definitive conclusion on the use of scaffolds for tendon augmentation.…”

“…Exposure of musculoskeletal tissues to hypergravity may constitute a way of simulating (over)loading or, eventually, to be used as a measure to rescue cell phenotype after exposure to near-weightlessness conditions [103]. Effects of hypergravity (5,10,15, and 20 g) on the viability of hTDCs and expression of tendon-related genes were evaluated. It was found that the expression of scleraxis (Scx), tenascin (TNC), decorin (DCN), and III (COL3A1) was significantly increased by 4-, 5.4-, 6.4-, and 7-folds, respectively, at 15 g after 16 h. However, no difference was observed in the transcription level of tenomodulin (TNMD) and collagen type I (COL1A1) as compared to the control (Figure 8).…”

“…In particular, scaffolds are an effective technological option for chronic and acute tendon repair, allowing at the same time an improved healing rate and high quality/functionality of repaired tissue. In these attempts, scaffolds with suitable mechanical biofunctional properties can be surgically implanted at the injured site in order to recapitulate the events for tendon tissue regeneration [10]. Ideally, this physical support should not only improve the cell attachment but also enhance the interactions between seeded cells and biomaterials thus controlling further cellular activities like cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation [11,12].…”

Mkx Mediates Tenogenic Differentiation But Incompletely Inhibits The Proliferation of Hypoxic MSCs

“…Tendon is composed of collagen bers interspaced by little vessel [1,2]. The forces transmission from muscles to bones in body movement and the hypovascularity make tendons tend to be subject to chronic injury, which accounts for the fact that tendon injury is a common but challenging medical problem, especially in athletes [2][3][4]. Tendon injury is also prevalent in the old people with the increasing incidence along the aggravation of global aging [3][4][5].…”

“…The self-repair of tendon injury is di cult because of the poor differentiation ability of tendon cells [1,4,6]. However, differentiation-inducing therapy of MSCs has been reported to be potential in treating tendon injury [2,6,7].…”