| Abstract: | Injury initiates a repair process characterized by influx of fibroblasts and the rapid
formation of fibrous scar tissue and subsequent tissue contraction. The response to injury
and behavior of the different tendon fibroblast populations, however, has been poorly
characterized. We hypothesized that the fibroblasts recovered from tendon with acute
injury would exhibit different cell properties relating to adhesion, migration and
tensegrity. To test this hypothesis we evaluated the ability of fibroblasts recovered from
normal and injured equine superficial digital flexor tendons (SDFTs). The injured
tendon-derived cells showed greater contraction of the collagen gel but poorer adhesion to
pepsin-digested collagen, and migration over extracellular matrix proteins compared to
normal SDFT-derived fibroblasts. Thus, the cells present within the tendon after injury
display different behavior related to wound healing. |
