Although ageing predisposes tendons for various pathologies, the effect of ageing on tendon stem/progenitor
cells has received little attention. In this study, we compared tendon progenitor cells from patellar, Achilles and tail
tendons derived from young (8-12 weeks old) and mature (52 weeks old) rats. The mean number of progenitor cells/
mg was reduced with age in all three tendons and this reduction reached statistical significance in both Achilles
and tail tendons. As determined by colony-forming-unit-fibroblasts assays, mean colony number and size were both
statistically unchanged with age in patellar and Achilles tendons. In contrast, both colony number and size were
significantly reduced in cultures derived from mature tail tendons relative to those derived from young tail tendons.
While colonies per mg tissue were reduced with age in all three tendons, this reduction was only statistically significant
for tail tendon. Lipofuscin and ROS content in cell progenitors were unchanged with age in all 3 tendons. Conversely,
carbonyl content was significantly increased and telomerase activity significantly decreased in mature tail tendon
cells relative to young tendon cells. These data suggest that, in the first year of life, rat Achilles and patellar tendons
suffer relatively little oxidative damage. In contrast, tail tendons experience an increase protein oxidation, a decrease
in telomerase activity and a substantial reduction in progenitor cell numbers. That the source and age of tendon
progenitors used influences the quality and density of the progenitor cells isolated from it has important implications
for clinical strategies aimed at tendon repair.
Funding
The work presented in this paper was made possible by funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF
1315883).
History
School
Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
Journal of Stem Cell Research & Therapy
Volume
5
Issue
10
Citation
SCUTT, N. ...et al., 2015. Tissue-specific ageing of rat tendon-derived progenitor cellss. Journal of Stem Cell Research & Therapy, 5(10): 309.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/
Publication date
2015
Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by OMICS International under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/