Regenerative Medicine for Tendon Regeneration and Repair: The Role of Bioscaffolds and Mechanical Loading

Abstract

Tendons are soft connective tissues, which connect muscle to bone forming a musculotendinous unit, whose primary function is to transmit tensile loads generated by muscles to move and enhance joints stability. Adult tendons have relatively low oxygen and nutrient requirements, low cell density, and poor regenerative capacity. The biomechanical properties of tendons are mainly attributed to the high degree of organization of the tendon extracellular matrix, primarily composed of collagen type I, arranged in triple-helical molecules bundles that have different dimensions and which are aligned in a parallel manner in a proteoglycan matrix (Fig. 1).