Rotator Cuff Repair With Autologous Tenocytes and Biodegradable Collagen Scaffold: A Histological and Biomechanical Study in Sheep.

Background: Large rotator cuff tears still represent a challenging problem in orthopaedics. The use of tenocytes on biomaterials/scaffolds for the repair of large rotator cuff defects might be a promising approach in the field of tendon regeneration.

Hypothesis: Cultivated autologous tenocytes seeded on a collagen scaffold lead to enhanced histological and biomechanical results after rotator cuff repair in a sheep model as compared with unseeded scaffolds in an acute setting.