The ability of tendons to withstand stress generally decreases with age, often resulting in increased tissue degeneration and decreased regeneration capacity. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of tendon senescence remain poorly characterized. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to identify genes showing an age-dependent altered expression profile in tendons. A suppression-subtractive-hybridization (SSH) screen comparing cDNA libraries generated from Achilles tendons of mature-adult (3 months) and old (18 months) female C57BL/6 mice was conducted. Subsequently, the differential expression of the identified genes was validated by RT-qPCR and selected genes were then further analysed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot. To investigate age-related structural alterations in the collagenous extracellular matrix we applied SHG-microscopy and TEM. In vitro experiments with young and old tendon derived stem/progenitor cells (TDSCs) involved wounding assays, tendon-like constructs as well as collagen gel contraction assays.Introduction
Materials and Methods
