An engineered tenogenic patch for the treatment of rotator cuff tear

Rotator cuff tear of shoulder is a common tendon injury. Current therapeutic strategies are unsatisfactory because of poor biomechanical properties of the repaired rotator cuff tendons. To solve this problem, a newly biofabricated tenogenic patch by uniaxial cold-drawing technology was applied for the treatment of acute rotator cuff tear and its therapeutic effects were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The cytocompatibility results indicated that the engineered patch was capable of promoting the spreading, migration and proliferation of tendon fibroblasts in vitro. Stress–strain curves of the sutured patch indicated improved elasticity followed by the yield phenomena, nonlinear plasticity and obviously delaminated rupture. The tenogenic patch also showed significantly enhanced collagen I deposition and better tendon-to-bone healing in the rat rotator cuff tear models in vivo. Furthermore, implantation with the tenogenic patch also promoted the fibrocartilage formation in Safranin-O/Fast green-staining. The analysis of biomechanical properties showed that the tenogenic patch is capable of improving the ultimate load of the repaired tendon. Therefore, the tenogenic patch may constitute an efficient strategy to enhance tendon-to-bone healing for clinical repair applications of rotator cuff tear.