Insulin-dependent diabetes thwarts tendon healing in injury models.

2004 JUN 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Insulin-dependent diabetes thwarts tendon healing in injury models.

"Although impaired wound healing associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus has been well studied in skin tissue, the influence of this metabolic disorder on tendon healing and recovery has not been extensively investigated. Because tendons are known to have limited repair potential, we studied the tendon-healing process by using a diabetic rat tendonitis model. We tested the hypothesis that diabetes influences the inflammatory response, cell proliferation, and angiogenesis in injured Achilles tendons," scientists writing in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology report.

"Diabetes was induced by injecting streptozotocin at 45 mg/kg body wt. Nondiabetic rats as well as diabetic and insulin-treated diabetic animals were then injected with collagenase. The accumulation of inflammatory cells was quantified in transversal sections of Achilles tendon by using immunohistochemical staining at days 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 post-trauma. The number of proliferative cells and the extent of neovascularization was also quantified in the paratenon and the core of the tendon at days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 28 post-trauma," N. Chbinou and colleagues, University of Laval, Research Center wrote.

"Relative to nondiabetic and insulin-treated diabetic animals, the numbers of accumulated neutrophils and ED1+ and ED2+ macrophages in diabetic rats decreased by 46, 43, and 52%, respectively, in the first 3 days after injury ...