Abstract
To explore whether the hydrogels loaded with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes can facilitate the repair and regeneration of tendons in rats with acute rotator cuff injury through regulating transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1). After the extraction and identification of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes, 60 male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 12 per group): control (untreated), repair-alone, GelMA (hydrogel only), BMSC-Exos (hydrogel + BMSC-Exos), and BMSC-Exos + TGF-β1 inhibited (hydrogel + BMSC-Exos + TGF-β1 inhibitor P144). An acute rotator cuff injury repair model was established in the left shoulder joint of the rats, and different treatments were administered to the rats according to the groups. Six weeks later, the rats in each group were sacrificed, and HE staining, Masson staining, Sirius Red staining, biomechanical tests, and PCR detection were carried out. BMSC-Exos were successfully isolated and characterized. Biomechanical tests showed that the BMSC-Exos group exhibited significantly higher maximum failure load and stiffness compared with the repair-alone, GelMA, and BMSC-Exos + TGF-β1 inhibited groups (all P < 0.05), reaching levels similar to the normal control. Histological scoring revealed that the BMSC-Exos group had better collagen fiber continuity, parallelism, density, and fewer inflammatory cells and blood vessels at the tendon-bone interface. Gene expression analysis demonstrated that the BMSC-Exos group significantly upregulated the mRNA levels of ColⅠ, ColⅢ, Scx, and α-SMA compared with the other experimental groups (all P < 0.05). The hydrogels loaded with mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes can enhance the repair and regeneration of tendons in rat shoulder cuff injuries through TGF-β1.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- RCI:
-
Rotator cuff injury
- Exos:
-
Exosomes
- BMSCs:
-
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells
- BMSC-Exos:
-
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes
- TGF-β1:
-
Transforming growth factor-β1
- TEM:
-
Transmission Electron Microscope
- NTA:
-
Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis
- TSG101:
-
Recombinant Tumor Susceptibility Gene 101
- HSP70:
-
Heat Shock Protein 70
- Col Ⅰ:
-
Collagen Type I
- Col Ⅲ:
-
Collagen Type III
- α-SMA:
-
α-Smooth muscle actin
- Scx:
-
Scleraxis
- TnC:
-
Troponin C
- GelMA:
-
Gelatin Methacryloyl
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the financia support provided by the Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Grant No.H2021406023),Health Commission of Hebei Province (Grant The “14th Five-Year Plan” medical key disciplines of Hebei province special funds).
Funding
The authors are grateful for the financia support provided by the Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Grant No.H2021406023),Health Commission of Hebei Province (Grant The “14th Five-Year Plan” medical key disciplines of Hebei province special funds).
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Peng, Kun:Conceptalization, Data Curation, Fommal AnalysisInvestigation, Methodology, Sofware,Visualization. Writing-Original DraftWriting-Review & Editing. Wang Shubin:Conceptalization, Data Curation, Fommal AnalysisInvestigation, Methodology, Sofware,Visualization. Writing-Original DraftWriting-Review & Editing. Xu Cong：Conceptalization, Funding Acquisition.Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing-Review &Editing. Li, Jia:Resources. Zhang, Jian:Formalanalysis. Gao, Yaxian:Resources. Wang, Yongwei:Resources. Liu, Fei:Supervision. Guan, Chenwei:Formalanalysis. Wang Shubin and Peng Kun made equal contributions to this research.
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This study and included experimental procedureswere approved by the institutional animal care anduse committee of Chengde Medical University Affiliated Hospital. All animal housing and experimentswere conducted in strict accordance with the institutional guidelines for care and use oflaboratory animals.This study was approved by the ethics committee of Chengde Medical University Affiliated Hospital (approval No.CYFYLL2022136).We certify that the study wasperformed in accordance with the 1964declaration of HELSINKl and later amendments.Our manuscript confirming the study is reported in accordance with ARRIVE guidelines.
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Peng, K., Wang, S., Li, J. et al. Bmscs loaded exosome hydrogel promotes the repair of rotator cuff injury in rats in vivo. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40392-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40392-y
