Platelet-like cells differentiated from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells inhibit acute inflammation of tendinopathy in rats

TL;DR

Platelet-like cells from fat stem cells reduce inflammation in rat tendon injuries, offering a potential new treatment for tendinopathy.

Contribution

Platelet-like cells derived from adipose stem cells show anti-inflammatory effects in tendinopathy without xeno-reaction.

Findings

ASCL-PLCs significantly inhibit inflammatory cytokine expression and cell infiltration in rat tendonitis.

Human-derived ASCL-PLCs show no xeno-reaction in wild-type rats.

ASCL-PLCs suppress IL-6 expression and phosphorylation in fibroblasts in vitro.

Abstract

Tendinopathy, a disease that causes inflammation and pain and limits patients’ activities of daily living, is considered particularly important to treat during the acute inflammatory phase to prevent the transition to chronic degeneration. Recently, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been used to treat tendinopathy; however, it is not clear whether platelets themselves, which are the active component of PRP, could be effective in treating tendinopathy.

We made rat Achilles tendinopathy models by incision of the calcaneal attachment and administrated platelet-like cells derived from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCL-PLCs) to the injury site and investigated the anti-inflammatory effect.

ASCL-PLCs significantly inhibits the inflammatory cytokine expression and inflammatory cell infiltration in acute tendonitis in a rat Achilles tendon injury model in vivo. Interestingly, we observed no xeno-reaction when human-derived ASCL-PLCs were administered to wild-type rats in vivo. Moreover, IL-6 expression and phosphorylation seen in NIH3T3 fibroblasts treated with IL-6 plus soluble IL-6 receptor were both significantly suppressed by ASCL-PLCs in vitro.

ASCL-PLC has advantages over existing PRP therapies, including the ability to be cryopreserved after quality checks, and homogeneous populations of ASCL-PLCs can be prepared in large quantity. We conclude that in the future ASCL-PLCs may serve as an allogeneic transplant effective to treat tendinopathy.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00774-025-01647-2.

Figures