FIG. 1.

Isolation of stem/progenitor cells from tendon proper and peritenon. Isolated cells form colonies that adhered to the culture flask, a characteristic of progenitor cells. Flasks representative for cells of the peritenon (A) and tendon proper (B) are shown with more numerous colonies associated with cells isolated from the tendon proper. Roughly 16-fold more adherent progenitor colonies were observed from the tendon proper compared to peritenon (C) (p<0.01, n=8). Assuming each colony formed from a single progenitor cell, this indicated more progenitors were isolated from the Achilles tendon proper. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/tea