Tendonitis and apoptosis - Literature review Example

Other factors that could initiate cell apoptosis such as vulnerability of tendons to hypoxia which leads to hypoxia-induced cell death, excessive tensile load on the tendons, lack of vascularisation within connective tissues, degenerating balance of growth factors and presence of apoptosis-signalling enzymes, and injections such as anti-inflammatory glucocortisoids also hasten the process of the degradation of tenocytes leading to tissue necroses (Busch, et al., 2012; Dean, Franklin & Carr, 2012; Klatte-Schulz, et al.

, 2012; Liang, et al., Maeda, et al., 2009; Poulsen, Carr & Hulley, 2011). While most of these studies independently experimented on the mechanisms of how tenocytes degenerate and regenerate as well as the effects of certain drugs to prevent further cell death, some of the reports performed tests with regards to the influence of naturally-occurring compounds such as reseveratrol and curcumin on apoptosis genes, including the identification of the mechanisms of downregulation or upregulation on the targeted sequences (Buhrmann, et al.

, 2011; Busch, et al., 2012). . The study was undertaken to fully explain the role of Sirt-1 in the upregulation or downregulation of genes normally associated with cellular apoptosis. Since Sirt-1 is not fully studied, the effects of regulating its expression was used to explain how it triggers the signalling pathways of apoptosis among tenocytes in vitro, along with its possibility of being connected with other apoptosis proteins such as p53, Bax, SCAX, among others (Busch, et al., 2012). Aside from aiming to identify how Sirt-1 can be repressed or induced, the addition of resveratrol, an organic compound from grapes and testing its anti-inflammatory and repressive effects on Sirt-1 in tenocytes treated with either SO or ASO were also conducted.

Using in vitro monolayer cell cultures of tenocytes, tests were conducted using immunological, immunofluorescence and immunoblotting assays, transfect ions of anti-sense Sirt-1 sequences, cell viability and apoptotic assays, and immune complex kinase assays, and these were observed using microscopy, purifications through electrophoresis and pelleting, and were analysed statistically using t-tests (Busch, et al., 2012). Results showed that the introduction of ASO in the tenocytes significantly affected the expression of Sirt-1 and its products by downregulating it, resulting to the initiation of apoptotic signalling pathways, while the addition of SO did not affect Sirt-1 and its products through downregulation, thus it was comparable to the control (Figures 2-4).

However, it was rather surprising for the researchers to observe that while the addition of resveratrol in either control or SO-treated cells greatly inhibited inflammatory responses and cell apoptosis, in ASO-treated cells it enhanced and even hastened cellular