Addition of nitric oxide through nitric oxide-paracetamol enhances healing rat achilles tendon.

Full Abstract

Nitric oxide is an important messenger molecule in many physiological processes. The addition of NO via NO-flurbiprofen enhances the material properties of healing tendon, however, flurbiprofen has a detrimental effect on healing. We asked if NO delivered by a cyclooxygenase 3 inhibitor (paracetamol/acetaminophen) would enhance healing in a rat Achilles tendon healing model. Rats were injected subcutaneously daily with NO-paracetamol, paracetamol or vehicle from two days before surgery to the day of tissue harvesting. Paracetamol had no effect on tendon healing compared with vehicle alone. NO-paracetamol did not change the failure load, but did decrease the water content, enhance the collagen content, reduce the cross-sectional area and improve the ultimate stress of healing tendon compared with paracetamol and vehicle. The collagen organization of the healing tendon in the NO-paracetamol group, as determined by polarized light microscopy, was enhanced. Our data suggests NO-paracetamol increases the total collagen content and enhances organization while decreasing the cross-sectional area of healing rat Achilles tendon and is consistent with human clinical trials where NO has improved the symptoms and signs of tendinopathy.

Author information

Author/s: Murrell, George A C (GA); Tang, Gongyao (G); Appleyard, Richard C (RC); del Soldato, Piero (P); Wang, Min-Xia (MX);

Affiliation: Orthopaedic Research Institute, St George Hospital, Research & Education Centre, University of New South Wales, Level 2, 4-10 South Street, Kogarah, Sydney, NSW, 2217, Australia. murrell.g(-atsign-)ori.org.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Clinical orthopaedics and related research (Clin Orthop Relat Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 466 (issue 7) : pp 1618-24

Dates: Created 2008/06/11; Completed 2008/06/26; Revised 2009/07/02;

PMID: 18463933, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 7/3/2009, IMS Date: )

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