This analysis demonstrates that EGF and TGF-β improve biomechanical properties in healing medial collateral ligament, suggesting potential for better recovery.
Both basic science and clinical studies have shown that surgical repair may not be necessary for healing of an isolated medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury (Weiss et al., 1991; Indelicato et al., 1995) However, the quality of the healed ligament remains inferior to that of the uninjured ligament. Growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) have been shown to increase the stiffness, ultimate load, and energy absorbed to failure of the healing MCL in vivo. In our laboratory, we noted that epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulates fibroblast proliferation (Schmidt et al., 1994). Hence, we designed a study to determine if pharmacologic doses of EGF and TGF-β to a ruptured MCL could significantly enhance ligament healing by improving its functional and biomechanical properties.
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Woo et al. (1995) studied this question.
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