Human Tendon-on-a-Chip for Modeling the Myofibroblast Microenvironment in Peritendinous Fibrosis.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the myofibroblast microenvironment is critical to developing therapies for fibrotic diseases. Here the development of a novel human tendon-on-a-chip (hToC) is reported to model this crosstalk in peritendinous adhesions, which currently lacks biological therapies. The hToC facilitates cellular and paracrine interactions between a vascular component, which contains endothelial cells and monocytes, and a tissue hydrogel component that houses tendon cells and macrophages. It is found that the hToC replicates some aspects of in vivo inflammatory and fibrotic phenotypes in preclinical and clinical samples, including activated mTOR signaling, vascular inflammation, tissue contraction induced by myofibroblast activation, inflammatory cytokines secretion, and transendothelial migratio

SUBMITTER: Ajalik RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11804843 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature