Achilles Tendinopathy
The Achilles tendon is among the highest load-bearing tendons in the musculoskeletal system. It transfers load from the triceps surae, the primary plantarflexors of the ankle joint, to the calcaneus, providing force transmission required for walking, running, and jumping. Loads in the Achilles tendon during athletic movements often reach several times body weight, which amount to thousands of pounds of force. Achilles tendinopathy is a painful and debilitating condition associated with repetitive overuse. The first step to treatment for most is physical therapy, which seeks to prescribe mechanical loading as a conservative therapeutic agent. However, sixty percent of patients report painful symptoms after 5 years, and fifty percent seek surgical treatment after conservative treatment fails. Our lab is involved in a multi-PI center grant to study Achilles tendinopathy. This center, called the Penn Achilles Tendinopathy Center of Research Translation (PATCORT), seeks to foster fundamental discoveries to guide clinical translation, as well as develop and employ novel translational resources, models and technologies, to address the highly significant research and clinical challenge of Achilles tendinopathy. The PATCORT Tissue Core seeks to leverage preclinical models, including rat models of Achilles tendon overuse and tendinopathy, in combination with a battery of assays in vivo and ex vivo. These investigations will enable discoveries of tendinopathy pathogenesis and guide future treatment.