Defining the role of type III collagen in neonatal tendon development and healing
Tendons can withstand large forces due to a highly aligned, dense collagen matrix. However, their low cellularity and relative inability to recruit reparative cells post-injury, as well as susceptibility to excessive scarring, results in loss of tendon structure and mechanical function. Type I collagen (Col1) is the primary collagen of healthy tendon and type III collagen (Col3) is a minor constituent that increases in response to injury. Persistently increased Col3 contributes to persistent fibrovascular scarring and structural and functional deficits in the healing tendon. In perinatal tendons, Col3 is increased, similar to the injured state, compared to healthy mature tendons. Unlike the healing response, the process of neonatal tendon development yields a structurally and functionally superior tendon with a highly aligned Col1-dense matrix. Moreover, neonatal developing tendon demonstrates improved efficiency and quality of healing compared to healing mature tendon. Understanding the role of Col3 in the developmental and healing processes of the neonatal tendon will increase our ability to recapitulate tendon development with tissue engineering and improve tendon injury treatment. Therefore, our overall objective is to delineate the contribution of Col3 to development and healing in the neonatal tendon through modulation of matrix properties and cellular activity. To this end, we generated a novel, inducible Col3 deficient mouse (i.e. Col3a1F/F) to temporally control Col3 reduction. Viscoelastic mechanical testing, transmission electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, gene expression, proteomics, and a11 integrin analyses will be used to assess the structural, mechanical, and compositional properties of tendons in both aims. Insights gleaned from this work will be relevant to a variety of conditions that reduce Col3 expression including vascular Ehlers Danlos syndrome, aging, smoking and menopause and will highlight therapeutic targets for enhancing tendon injury treatment.