Engineering Commons^™

A Regenerative Medicine Approach To Improved Tendon Healing And Repair, Grace Margaret Dion

All Theses

Surgical repair of torn tendons is a common orthopaedic procedure in the United States, with nearly 400,000 repairs occurring annually. Despite improvements in surgical techniques used to re-attach the tendon to its boney insertion, clinically successful outcomes amongst patients are variable and re-tear rates can be exceedingly high. The use of stem cells as an adjunct to surgical repair to aid in improving tendon healing and repair strength has gained much interest amongst the clinical community. Accordingly, many investigators have begun examining the ability of stem cells to differentiate into tenocytes using various methodologies including the application of growth factors …