Ex-vivo Tendon Repair Augmented with Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Stimulated with Myostatin for Tenogenesis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effect of myostatin (GDF-8) stimulation of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on tenogenesis in the setting of tendon repair. GDF-8 has demonstrated the ability to augment tenogenesis and we sought to identify if this effect could lead to the focused differentiation of pluripotential stem cells down a tenocyte lineage ex vivo. METHODS: Cadaveric upper limb flexor tendons were harvested, decellularized and divided into 1 cm segments. Sutures seeded with stem cells were passed through tendon segments to simulate repair. The repaired tendons were then cultured either with or without myostatin for 3, 5, and 7 days. The experiment was also repeated with non-decellularized tendons for a total of 4 groups. The tendons were then evaluated for the expression of scleraxis and tenomodulin, two biomarkers for tendon. RESULTS: Myostatin stimulation led to an increase in expression of tenomodulin and scleraxis at 5 and 7 days in both the decellularized and non-decellularized tendons. Myostatin increased the differentiation of BMSCs into tenocytes and/or led to the upregulation of tenomodulin and scleraxis production by the native tenocytes present within the non-decellularized tendons. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of myostatin to BMSCs leads to tenocyte differentiation as evidenced by the expression of tenocyte biomarkers, scleraxis and tenomodulin. This effect is maintained in an ex vivo tendon repair model suggestive that these cells survive the passage through tendon tissue and remain metabolically active.