Nanoparticles for Tendon Healing and Regeneration: Literature Review

Abstract

Tendon injuries are commonly met in the emergency department. Unfortunately, tendon tissue has limited regeneration potential and usually the consequent formation of scar tissue causes inferior mechanical properties. Nanoparticles could be used in different way to improve tendon healing and regeneration, ranging from scaffolds manufacturing (increasing the strength and endurance or anti-adhesions, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory properties) to gene therapy. This paper aims to summarize the most relevant studies showing the potential application of nanoparticles for tendon tissue regeneration.

Living nanofiber yarn-based woven biotextiles for tendon tissue engineering using cell tri-culture and mechanical stimulation

“…Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds or nano/micro hybrid constructions have been demonstrated to promote cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation for tendon tissue engineering applications [27–30]. However, such non-woven constructs also have several limitations that prevent broader clinical application [31–33]. The tightly packed fibrous structure, small pore sizes existing between fibers (usually below 3 μm), and inferior controllability of fiber organization may limit cell growth, migration, and infiltration into the inner layers, and are not beneficial for the transportation of oxygen and nutrients throughout the implant site and removal of metabolic waste during tissue regeneration.…”

Tissue engineering strategies for the treatment of tendon injuries

“… 11 In addition, there is a growing interest in the use of nanomaterials in tendon tissue engineering, and they could play a key role in tendon healing, as they can act as a carrier for gene therapy or growth factors, and thus help modulate the regenerative function of cells. 12 …”

Tendon Tissue Repair in Prospective of Drug Delivery, Regenerative Medicines, and Innovative Bioscaffolds

“…From the last decade, there was growing interest to synthesize nanoparticles for tendon regeneration and treatment. Nanomaterials are proposed to be a potential breakthrough in tendon regeneration technology in terms of improvement towards drug delivery (growth factors), gene therapy (as gene carrier), cell proliferation, anti-inflammatory, antiadhesion, antimicrobial properties, and enhanced physicochemical and morphology of repaired tissue [155,156]. The size of nanoparticles is usually in range of 20 and 600 nm.…”