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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Translational Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1522517
Does quercetin affect tendon healing? An experimental study in a rat model of Achilles tendon injury
Provisionally accepted- 1 Konya City Hospital, Konya, Türkiye
- 2 Ministry of Health (Turkey), Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
- 3 Selçuk University, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 4 Kahramanmaraş Istiklal University, Kahramanmaraş, Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye
The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of quercetin, a potent antioxidant, on tendon healing utilizing a rat Achilles tendon injury model.The study involved 32 male Wistar-Albino rats, randomly split into experimental (quercetin) and control groups, each with 16 rats. A bilateral Achilles tenotomy model was applied, with the experimental group receiving quercetin and the control group receiving corn oil via oral gavage from surgery until sacrifice. One Achilles tendon per rat underwent histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluations, while the other underwent biomechanical analysis.Results: Tendons were evaluated histopathologically in terms of tenocyte, ground substance, collagen, and vascularity, and quercetin was observed to significantly increase tendon healing in the experimental group (p values = 0.0232, 0.0128, 0.0272, 0.0307, respectively). In the immunohistochemical analysis, type I collagen, type III collagen, alpha smooth muscle actin (SMA), and Galectin-3 were evaluated, and it was observed that quercetin increased tendon healing (p values = 0.0166, 0.0036, 0.0323, 0.0295, respectively). In the biomechanical analysis, the rupture strength was evaluated with six parameters (failure load, maximum energy, displacement, stiffness, ultimate stress, and strain), and it was observed that quercetin significantly increased the rupture strength (p values = 0.032, 0.014, 0.026, 0.025, 0.045, 0.012, respectively).Conclusions: Quercetin significantly enhanced tendon healing both biomechanically and immunohistochemically. However, further clinical studies are needed to understand its effects on human tendon healing, as this is the first study of its kind.
Keywords: Biomechanical, Histopathological, Immunohistochemical, Polyphenols, Quercetin
Received: 04 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yurteri, Mercan, Celik, Yaykaşlı and Yıldırım. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Numan Mercan, Ministry of Health (Turkey), Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye
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