Scarless Regenerative Tendon Healing
Tendon injuries are a frequent cause of disability as they often fail to heal or else do so by scar formation. Scar is less organized than normal tendon and exhibits inferior properties long after initial injury. Scarring is also responsible for the formation of adhesions, which disrupt the normal gliding mechanism that is critical for function. Previous studies have shown that fetal skin and cartilage heal regeneratively, without scar. Developing methods and understanding the underlying mechanisms of scarless healing in tendon would have a truly significant benefit to the treatment of tendon injuries. Therefore, we developed the following aims:Aim 1: Determine whether fetal tendon heals regeneratively and if so,
Aim 2: Determine whether this is intrinsic to fetal tendon or dependent upon environment, and
Aim 3: Determine whether this ability can be harnessed and applied to adult tendon injuries to improve healing by: