Engineered Decellularized Tendon Matrix Putty Preserves Native Tendon Bioactivity to Promote Cell Proliferation and Enthesis Repair

Figure 5

RNA isolated from ADSCs cultured on tissue-culture (TC) treated, DTM, and pepsin-coated plates was measured for level of tenocyte differentiation by probing for tenocyte markers (n = 3–5 donors) (a) Tenomodulin (Tnmd) and (b) Scleraxis (Scx), (c) tenocyte recruiter Sox9, and (d) TGF-β marker Smad3. DTM had significantly more Sox9 ( = 0.023) and Smad3 ( = 0.0395) than the control at day 7. Performing a two-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant interaction between days and treatment groups on Sox9 values, F (2, 16) = 6.365,  = 0.0093, and on Smad3 values, F (2, 17) = 3.907,  = 0.0402. Statistically significant results from Tukey’s multiple comparison test are reported for Sox9 and for Smad3 on each respective graph above. Two-way ANOVA for Scx, F (2, 23) = 0.4200,  = 0.6620, and Tnmd, F (2, 19) = 0.9607,  = 0.4005, was found to have no statistical significance.

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