(203c) Cell-Free Tailored Therapies for Improved Tendon Healing

Despite advances in tendon repair surgery, there is a high re-tear rate due to the inherently poor healing capacity of tendinous tissue. Thus, there has been a shift in paradigm to utilize regenerative medicine to overcome the tendon repair deficiencies and complement the healing response. In particular, cell-free therapies have emerged as an attractive therapeutic to circumvent cellular related complications and simplify the regulatory pathway towards clinical application. To this end, the Taylor Lab investigates the tendon reparative process to inform the development of cell-free strategies, such as sustained therapeutic delivery systems which are designed to specifically address the unique challenges with tendon repair. This talk will focus on the engineering and evaluation of tunable synthetic and biological delivery systems for targeted tendon healing. The innovative design of the synthetic delivery system incorporates nanofibrous matrices that recapitulate the microstructure of native tendon and promote tissue integration,

and depots of biofactor-releasing microspheres to locally regulate cellular activity throughout the tissue healing cascade. Additionally, tailored extracellular vesicles that were engineered using biophysical stimulation will be highlighted. Altogether, this collection of work exploits the capability of transformative technologies to improve tendon repair and broadly contributes to the musculoskeletal field by advancing the translation of cell-free therapies.