Study finds that Tendon stem cells can revolutionise healing of injuries

Tendon stem cells can revolutionise the process of injury recovery, reveals a study.The research was published in the journal of Nature Cell Biology and was led by Carnegie's Chen-Ming Fan."Tendons are the connective tissue that tethers our muscles to our bones, they improve our stability and facilitate the transfer of force that allows us to move. But they are also particularly susceptible to injury and damage," said Fan.Unfortunately, once tendons are injured, they rarely fully recover, which can result in limited mobility and require long-term pain management or even surgery. The culprit is fibrous scars, which disrupt the tissue structure of the tendon.Working with Carnegie's Tyler Harvey and Sara Flamenco, Fan revealed that all of the cell types present in the Patellar tendon found below the kneecap, including previously undefined tendon stem cells.According to lead author Harvey, "Because tendon injuries rarely heal completely, it was thought that tendon stem cells might not ...