SVF
Level D· Preclinical EvidenceLaboratory Study

Adipose stromal cells in the human rotator cuff are resistant to fibrotic microenvironmental cues.

Kamm DR., Shaji A., Bohnert KL., Keener JD., Pathak A., Meyer GA.

Laboratory Study on Tendon Injury, Rotator Cuff, published in J Physiol (2025) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.

This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.

Study type
Laboratory Study
Journal
J Physiol (2025)
Country
England
Reported sample size
—
PMID
40198859
DOI
10.1113/JP286563

Abstract (original English)

Rotator cuff tears are the most common upper extremity orthopaedic injury, causing degenerative changes within the bone, tendon, joint capsule, bursa and muscle. These degenerative changes are linked to poor rehabilitative and surgical outcomes, which has launched investigations into co-therapeutic biologics. Specifically, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown promise in mitigating degenerative changes in animal models of rotator cuff tears, but reports of their impact on clinical outcomes remain mixed. Here we describe an alternative source of MSCs in the human shoulder, adipose stromal cells (ASCs) from the subacromial fat (SAF) pad. Compared to the gold-standard subcutaneous (SQ) fat, we show that SAF ASCs are less sensitive to chemical and mechanical fibrotic cues, (1) retaining smaller cell area with reduced actin stress fibre alignment across a range of physiological and pathological stiffnesses, (2) having reduced traction forces and extracellular matrix production, and (3) having reduced myofibroblastic conversion in response to cytokine challenge. Furthermore, we show that SAF ASCs enhance fusion of primary human myoblasts via paracrine signalling. Despite a fibrotic signature in SAF from rotator cuffs with tendon tears, SAF ASCs sourced from torn rotator cuffs were equally effective at resisting fibroblastic conversion and promoting myogenesis as those from intact

What this study does not prove

  • • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
  • • This is preclinical work; animal or laboratory results cannot be applied to humans.

Evidence level

Evidence comes from animal or laboratory studies and has not been confirmed in humans.

How we grade evidence
HumansRotator CuffAdipose TissueRotator Cuff InjuriesStromal CellsMaleMiddle AgedFibrosisFemaleCells, Cultured
ShoulderTendon InjuryRotator Cuff
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