Patent ID: 11944532
Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Field: Pharmaceuticals (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC A  C | IPC A  C

Claim 0:
1. A method of forming a tendon repair construct having a bone fixation end and a tendon-fixation end, comprising the steps of:
placing stem cells on a substrate in a fibrogenic growth medium without placing the stem cells in an exogenous scaffold;
forming a confluent tendon monolayer from the stem cells;
allowing for detachment of the confluent tendon monolayer from the substrate to form a three-dimensional scaffold-less tendon construct; and
placing two or more three-dimensional scaffold-less tendon constructs side by side lengthwise in culture in fibrogenic differentiation medium such that at a first end, the two or more three-dimensional scaffold-less tendon constructs fuse together to become the bone-fixation end of the tendon repair construct, and at a second end opposite the first end, the three-dimensional scaffold-less tendon constructs comprise unfused individual tendon prongs for the tendon-fixation end of the tendon repair construct.