title: Functional tissue engineering of tendon: Establishing biological success criteria for improving tendon repair.
abstract: Improving tendon repair using Functional Tissue Engineering (FTE) principles has been the focus of our laboratory over the last decade. Although our primary goals were initially focused only on mechanical outcomes, we are now carefully assessing the biological properties of our tissue-engineered tendon repairs so as to link biological influences with mechanics. However, given the complexities of tendon development and healing, it remains challenging to determine which aspects of tendon biology are the most important to focus on in the context of tissue engineering. To address this problem, we have formalized a strategy to identify, prioritize, and evaluate potential biological success criteria for tendon repair. We have defined numerous biological properties of normal tendon relative to cellular phenotype, extracellular matrix and tissue ultra-structure that we would like to reproduce in our tissue-engineered repairs and prioritized these biological criteria by examining their relative importance during both normal development and natural tendon healing. Here, we propose three specific biological criteria which we believe are essential for normal tendon function: (1) scleraxis-expressing cells; (2) well-organized and axially-aligned collagen fibrils having bimodal diameter distribution; and (3) a specialized tendon-to-bone insertion site. Moving forward, these biological success criteria will be used in conjunction with our already established mechanical success criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of our tissue-engineered tendon repairs.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States. Electronic address: breideaw@mail.uc.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Breidenbach
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States; Medical Scientist Training Program, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gilday
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States.
authors.forename: Andrea L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Lalley
authors.affiliation: Department of Reconstructive Sciences, College of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, United States.
authors.forename: Nathaniel A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Dyment
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gooch
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States.
authors.forename: Jason T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Shearn
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, College of Engineering and Applied Science, 601 Engineering Research Center, ML 0048, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0048, United States.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Butler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003094:Collagen / Q000502:physiology; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D013710:Tendons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen