Dr. Xu ZHANG (left), Ms. Ke LI (right)

At the TERMIS student conference in Nov 2021, Ph.D. student Ke LI and Research Associate Dr. Xu ZHANG, supervised by Prof. Elmer KER in collaboration with Prof. Rocky TUAN and Prof. Dan WANG presented their findings on Growth Factor and Topography-Directed, Multi-Tissue Regeneration of Muscle-Tendon Units for Rotator Cuff Repair.

Rotator cuff tears clinically challenging to treat because of both poor tendon regeneration and associated pathologies including muscle fatty degeneration. This highlights a need for developing multi-tissue (muscle-tendon) regenerative approach to treat rotator cuff tears. Ke’s research addresses this issue by optimizing a growth factor cocktail that simultaneously enhances tendon regeneration and prevents or minimizes muscle fatty degeneration. Her study demonstrates that her growth factor cocktail can induce tendon-like differentiation from human mesenchymal stem cells while simultaneously inhibiting or reducing fat cell differentiation, This work shows promise in application of growth factors for multi-tissue repair and regeneration of rotator cuff tissues.