Functional tissue engineering of tendon

描述（由申请人提供）：肌腱受伤后愈合的能力有限。受损的肌腱会导致严重的疼痛和残疾，并最终导致周围关节的不稳定和恶化。肩关节的肌腱（即，旋转套）特别容易受伤，在严重的慢性肌腱退化之后，撕裂经常发生在肌腱与骨的界面附近。目前没有一种外科修复技术能完全成功地修复这些损伤。这在很大程度上可能是由于手术修复时受损组织的质量差。一种将生物可吸收材料与细胞成分相结合的组织工程结构最终可能为这种组织损伤提供解决方案。本研究的目的是确定肌腱成纤维细胞填充胶原凝胶的组织结构，组成和粘弹性之间的关系。有了这些知识，组织工程肌腱等同物可以在体外设计，以满足天然组织的功能需求。将特别强调重建组织的粘弹性，这是必要的正常功能。本研究的目的是：（1）确定结构之间的关系（即，胶原排列）和粘弹性，（2）确定组成（即，细胞外基质成分）和粘弹性，和（3）确定外部负荷（即，静态或循环载荷）和粘弹性。这种方法将使用粘弹性作为功能目标，并改变结构和组成来实现这一目标。预计结构和成分设计的组合将是必要的，以实现正常肌腱的粘弹性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability of tendons to heal after injury is limited. A damaged tendon can cause significant pain and disability, and can ultimately lead to instability and deterioration of the surrounding joint. The tendons of shoulder joint (i.e., the rotator cuff) are particularly susceptible to injury, with tears often occurring near the tendon to bone interface after significant chronic tendon deterioration. No current surgical repair technique has been entirely successful in repairing these injuries. This may largely be due to the poor quality of the injured tissue at the time of surgical repair. A tissue-engineering construct combining a bioresorbable material with a cellular component could ultimately provide a solution for this tissue injury. The goal of this study is to determine the relationships between tissue structure, composition, and viscoelastic properties in tendon fibroblast populated collagen gels. With this knowledge, a tissue-engineered tendon equivalent can be designed in vitro to meet the functional demands of native tissue. Special emphasis will be placed on recreating the viscoelastic properties of the tissue, which are necessary for proper function. The aims of this study are: (1) determine the relationship between structure (i.e., collagen alignment) and viscoelastic properties, (2) determine the relationship between composition (i.e., extracellular matrix components) and viscoelastic properties, and (3) determine the relationship between external loading (i.e., static or cyclic loading) and viscoelastic properties, in tendon fibroblast populated collagen gels. This approach will use viscoelastic properties as the functional goal, and vary the structure and composition to achieve this goal. It is expected that a combination of structural and compositional design will be necessary to achieve the viscoelastic properties of normal tendon.