Clues to the ageing of tendons unlocked offering new avenues of future treatment

The mechanisms that cause ageing in the tendons of is becoming clearer – and it’s down to the proteins produced by the cells to repair damage changing as we get older, outlines research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. This finding will open up better treatment and prevention strategies to address tendon injuries in the future.
It has been understood for many years that tendons are highly prone to injury and that this likelihood increases as they age. But until now the reason behind this has been poorly understood.
So a team from the University of Liverpool used samples from young and old horses, which have similar tendon properties to those of humans. They performed a range of tests to profile the types, quantities and proportions of proteins present in the tendon and found marked differences in the proteins in young and old horses.
“Injured tendons are extremely painful and limiting in humans and we know that this increases as we get older,” explains Prof Peter Clegg who led the research. “We’re now starting to get to the ‘why’ of this process by showing that the proteins produced by the cells to repair damage alter as we get older.”
The findings showed that certain protein fragments appear in greater quantities in older horses, suggesting that they are released as the tissue is slowly damaged over time. In contrast, damaged tendons in younger horses were found to contain more of the proteins used in healing than the damaged samples from old horses, suggesting that healing also slows with age.
“This now opens up the possibility of better treatment and prevention strategies to address tendon injuries in both man and veterinary species such as the horse,” Prof Clegg says.