Cellular response of healing tissue to DegraPol tube implantation in rabbit Achilles tendon rupture repair: an in vivo histomorphometric study

In tendon rupture repair, improvements such as higher primary repair strength, anti-adhesion and accelerated healing are needed. We developed a potential carrier system of an electrospun DegraPol (R) tube, which was tightly implanted around a transected and conventionally sutured rabbit Achilles tendon. Histomorphometric analysis of the tendon tissue 12weeks postoperation showed that the tenocyte density, tenocyte morphology and number of inflammation zones were statistically equivalent, whether or not DegraPol tube was implanted; only the collagen fibres were slightly less parallelly orientated in the tube-treated case. Comparison of rabbits that were operated on both hind legs with ones that were operated on only one hind leg showed that there were significantly more inflammation zones in the two-leg cases compared to the one-leg cases, while the implantation of a DegraPol tube had no such adverse effects. These findings are a prerequisite for using DegraPol tube as a carrier system for growth factors, cytokines or stem cells in order to accelerate the healing process of tendon tissue. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.