Stem cells and tendinopathy: state of the art from the basic science to clinic application

Management of tendinopathies and tendon rupture is challenging. In the last few decades, several emerging strategies including tissue engineering with mesenchymal stem cells have been proposed to enhance tendon healing. They hold the promise to yield more successful outcomes for the management of patients with tendon pathology. Current in vitro studies support the application of these cell-based therapies for the regeneration of tendon tissues. However, these cell-based strategies have been investigated only in pre-clinical studies and the role of stem cells needs to be confirmed. We performed a review of the literature to focus on actual knowledge and the future perspectives of stem cells for tendon regeneration and tendon engineering.