Fullerenol inhibits tendinopathy by alleviating inflammation

Xin Jiao; Zengguang Wang; Yiming Li; Tianchang Wang; Chen Xu; Xianhao Zhou; Yaokai Gan

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1171360

Fullerenol inhibits tendinopathy by alleviating inflammation

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Mar 30:11:1171360. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1171360. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xin Jiao^{1

2}, Zengguang Wang^{1

2}, Yiming Li^{1

2}, Tianchang Wang^{1

2}, Chen Xu^{1

2}, Xianhao Zhou^{1

2}, Yaokai Gan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Orthopaedic Implants, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Tendinopathy is a common disease in orthopaedics, seriously affecting tendon functions. However, the effects of non-surgical treatment on tendinopathy are not satisfactory and surgical treatments possibly impair the function of tendons. Biomaterial fullerenol has been proved to show good anti-inflammatory effects on various inflammatory diseases. For in vitro experiments, primary rat tendon cells (TCs) were treated by interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) combined with aqueous fullerenol (5, 1, 0.3 μg/mL). Then inflammatory factors, tendon-related markers, migration and signaling pathways were detected. For in vivo experiments, rat tendinopathy model was constructed by local injection of collagenase into Achilles tendons of rats and fullerenol (0.5, 1 mg/mL) was locally injected 7 days after collagenase injection. Inflammatory factors and tendon-related markers were also investigated. Fullerenol with good water-solubility showed excellent biocompatibility with TCs. Fullerenol could increase expression of tendon-related factors (Collagen I and tenascin C) and decrease expression of inflammatory factors (matrix metalloproteinases-3, MMP-3, and MMP-13) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. Simultaneously, fullerenol slowed the migration of TCs and inhibited activation of Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Fullerenol also attenuated tendinopathy in vivo, including reduction of fiber disorders, decrease of inflammatory factors and increase of tendon markers. In summary, fullerenol is a promising biomaterial that can be used to treat tendinopathy.

Keywords: MAPK; ROS; fullerenol; inflammation; tendinopathy.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82172402), funds of the Clinical Research Plan of SHDC (16CR3099B), the Clinical Research Program of the 9th People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (JYLJ202101). Shanghai Key Laboratory of Orthopaedic Implants (KFKT202210).