Figure 5.
SP upregulation of genes related to tendinopathy. To determine the effects of SP on the development of tendinopathy, cultured healthy tenocytes were pretreated with or without SP 10−7 M for 24 h. Results show that healthy tenocytes developed similar gene expression trends as that of the tendinopathy tenocyte. Levels of COL1A1 decreased but COL3A1, COX2, SCX, MMP1, and ACTA2 were significantly increased as a result of treatment with SP. The result was expressed as the relative expression level after normalizing on GAPDH mRNA levels. Boxplot showing the median along with the first and third quartiles. Error bar means data range from minimum to maximum. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; SP: substance P.