GROOVED SUBSTRATA FACILITATE IN-VITRO HEALING OF COMPLETELY DIVIDED FLEXOR TENDONS

Multiple grooved substrata with groove depth 5 mu m were found to faci litate the healing of completely divided rat flexor tendons in vitro. Sections of tendons cultured on plain substrata showed only partial he aling with incompletely sealed epitenon layers and immature thin colla gen fibres. Tendons cultured on patterned substrata healed with comple te restoration of the epitenon layer and reconstitution of the interna l structure of collagen fibres. Epitenon fibroblasts isolated from the surface of rat flexor tendons were shown to be more sensitive to topo graphical features than fibroblasts of the same size BHK fibroblasts. They remained more elongated and better aligned to the groove directio n than BHK cells. Multiple grooved substrata facilitated epitenon cell movement. Cells were found to move with higher speed on patterned sub strata than on plain substrata. In summary, we conclude that the use o f multiple grooved substrata promotes tendon healing in vitro and may find application in clinical practice in tendon repair.