Figure 5.
qPCR of MMP3 mRNA in cultured human primary Achilles tendon cells. MMP3 expression is significantly different between unloaded and loaded tenocytes (p<0.01, two-way ANOVA). The mean level of MMP3 expression is elevated for both unloaded and loaded samples following SP (10−7 M) stimulation (p<0.001, two-way ANOVA). For both the unloaded and loaded groups, there was approximately a two-hold increase in MMP3 expression due to SP (*p<0.5 and ***p<0.001 respectively, two-way ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post-hoc test).