{"doi":"10.1021/acsabm.2c00243","title":"Insulin-Functionalized Bioactive Fiber Matrices with Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells in Rat Achilles Tendon Regeneration","abstract":"Approximately half of annual musculoskeletal injuries in the US involve tendon tears. The naturally hypocellular and hypovascular tendon environment makes tendons injury-prone and heal slowly. Tendon tissue engineering strategies often use biomimetic scaffolds combined with bioactive factors and/or cells to enhance healing. FDA-approved growth factors to promote tendon healing are lacking, which highlights the need for safe and effective bioactive factors. Our previous work evaluated insulin as a bioactive factor and identified an optimal dose to promote in vitro mesenchymal stem cell survival, division, and tenogenesis. The present work evaluates the ability of insulin-functionalized electrospun nanofiber matrices with or without mesenchymal stem cells to enhance tendon repair in a rat Achilles injury model. Electrospun nanofiber matrices were functionalized with insulin, cultured with or without mesenchymal stem cells, and sutured to transected Achilles tendons in rats. We analyzed rat tendons 4 and 8 weeks after surgery for the tendon morphology, collagen production, and mechanical properties. Bioactive insulin-functionalized fiber matrices with mesenchymal stem cells resulted in significantly increased collagen I and III at 4 and 8 weeks postsurgery. Additionally, these matrices supported highly aligned collagen fibrils in the regenerated tendon tissue at 8 weeks. However, treatment- and control-regenerated tissues had similar tensile properties at 8 weeks, which were less than that of the native Achilles tendon. Our preliminary results establish the benefits of insulin-functionalized fiber matrices in promoting higher levels of collagen synthesis and alignment needed for functional recovery of tendon repair.","journal":"ACS Applied Bio Materials","year":2022,"id":276620,"datarank":0.4438439506645188,"base_score":2.1972245773362196,"endowment":2.1972245773362196,"self_citation_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citation_network_contribution":0.11426026406408585,"self_endowment_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citer_contribution":0.11426026406408585,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":7,"citers_with_citation_signal":6,"citers_with_endowment":6,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9446,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":545733,"name":"Sama Abdulmalik","orcid":"0000-0002-0834-8357","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252813,"name":"Michael R. Arul","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":947637,"name":"Naseem Sardashti","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":693030,"name":"Yeshavanth Banasavadi‐Siddegowda","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250004,"name":"Syam P. Nukavarapu","orcid":"0000-0003-0852-9489","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":309043,"name":"Hicham Drissi","orcid":"0000-0002-3322-281X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250006,"name":"Sangamesh G. Kumbar","orcid":"0000-0001-7672-4783","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":731558,"name":"Daisy M. Ramos","orcid":"0009-0003-9591-8446","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:30.709588Z","pmid":"35642544","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}