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CELL VIABILITY IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF ROTATOR CUFF TENDON TEARS

Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, UK

The aim of this study was to determine cell viability in different stages of rotator cuff tendon tears using a cell viability molecular probe. Surgical biopsies taken from the edge of the Supraspinatus tendon tear from12 patients, 5 women and 7 men, mean age of 61 years were subjected to a cell viability assay using Molecular Probes Live/Dead cell viability assay. Specimens were then incubated with Calcein-AM and Ethidium Homodimer-1 and following snap freezing, sections were viewed under fluorescent microscopy. Cells which remained metabolically active fluoresced green, whereas dead cells were red. Populations of live and dead cells were counted for each specimen on ten high powered (x400 magnification) fields of view. The results show that the percentage of live cells is reduced in large chronic degenerate tears but greatest in acute traumatic tears. In addition, for those cases where tissue was assayed from the edge of the tear and 1 cm more proximally, there was a considerable increase in the percentage of viable cells in more proximal tissue. Use of this simple assay demonstrates high cell viability and consequently good quality tissue in traumatic tears, but lower quality tissue in larger more degenerate tears. This suggests that traumatic lesions have a high propensity to heal while larger more degenerate tears are less likely to heal but have better quality tissue more proximally.

The abstracts were prepared by Cormac Kelly. Correspondence should be addressed to The Secretary, British Elbow and Shoulder Society, Royal College of Surgeons, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE