At the ORS 2022 Annual Meeting in Feb 2022, Ph.D. student Ying RAO, supervised by Prof. Rocky TUAN and Prof. Dan WANG presented her findings on Urea-extracted tendon extracellular matrix: Investigating its protein compositions and induced transcriptomic profile in human adipose-derived stem cells.

The extracellular matrix (ECM)-based approach is commonly used for the repair of injured tendon tissue. Our lab has previously prepared a soluble, DNA-free, urea-extracted ECM fraction from bovine tendons (tECM), which exhibits robust tenogenic bioactivity on human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs). To investigate tECM pro-tenogenic bioactivity and mechanism of action, differentiation of tECM-treated hASC cultures was compared to serum control medium or Col1-treated groups, as assessed via immunofluorescence for tenogenic markers and RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq). RAO’s study showed that urea-extracted tECM contained 20% w/w collagens and other key non-collagen tendon ECM components. Compared to Col1 treatment, tECM supplementation exhibited enhanced hASC proliferation and tenogenic differentiation as well as induced distinct gene expression profiles. The outcomes of this study provide some basic insights into the mechanism of tECM pro-tenogenic bioactivity, which will help formulate future tECM-based approaches for tendon healing and regeneration.