Context of Use or Disease: Tenocyte and tendon interfascicular matrix cell cross talk in health and injury (tendinopathy)

DOI: pre-print expected summer 2026

Platform: Emulate - Chip-S1

Description: The model is a co-culture of primary tendon interfascicular matrix (IFM) cells and fascicular matrix (FM) tenocytes, paired from rat tendons. IFM cells are housed in a 2% fibrin gel to maintain phenotypic stability, whilst tenocytes adhere in 2D in the opposing channel, separated by a porous membrane to enable paracrine signalling. Inflammation is driven by incorporation of cytokine cocktails in the tenocyte channel and stretch of 8% (6hrs / day) applied for physiological loading.

Fig. 1. Schematic showing model design and set up parameters.

Characterisation & Validation: Transcriptome profile demonstrates strong match to rat in vivo transcriptome, and cell phenotypic maintenance, viability and organisation have been validated with broad spectrum PCR, immunohistochemistry and in situ imaging. Model reproduces key markers of inflammation and inflammatory signalling as seen in vivo with inclusion of inflammatory mediators.

Ongoing Research: Mechanistic understanding of tendinopathy and impact of IFM / FM cross talk and cell signalling, inclusion of vasculature, establishment of a human tendon-chip based on phenotyped cell populations  

Research Team: Simon Grossemy, Nidal Khatib, Brenda Garcia, Catrin Bevan, Simon Koenig, Martin Knight, Hazel Screen

Lead Contact: Hazel Screen

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