Inflammation and the continuum model: time to acknowledge the molecular era of tendinopathy

The original continuum theory mentioned little concerning inflammatory mechanisms in tendon disease likely due to the lack of scientific studies at that time. Since then we and others have clearly defined a role for inflammatory cells1 and the subsequent inflammatory/matrix crosstalk involving cytokine regulation2 in human tendinopathy. It is therefore surprising that the updated continuum model again fails to acknowledge the molecular role that inflammation likely plays in damage events associated with tendinopathy.