Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug susceptibility test. Photo by CDC on Unsplash
By Marcus Low and Nathan Geffen
The National Health Laboratory Service has provided HIV, TB, syphilis and cholesterol data, which Spotlight and GroundUp obtained through the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
Earlier this year, we made a request for data to the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) using the Promotion of Access to Information Act. In October, we were provided with the data we requested (and more).
We are grateful and impressed that the NHLS provided the data without fuss and without the need to go to court. Other state institutions could learn from this.
From the outset, we’ve intended to make the data public. No information on patients is recoverable from this data as the finest detail is at the monthly provincial level. We are therefore publishing this data, as an open document format spreadsheet, today. We are of the view that the data provided is useful for scientists and journalists and we hope the NHLS will regularly publish updates to it.
The spreadsheet contains monthly tallies per province of viral load tests, CD4 counts, TB tests, syphilis tests, full blood counts and cholesterol tests. The period covered is January 2015 to September 2025.
Much of the data is not straightforward to interpret. For example, after we puzzled over the decline in cholesterol tests, one expert pointed out to us that the decrease is probably due to changes in the standard second-line HIV treatment used in the public sector (some older HIV medicines had potential side effects that made cholesterol tests necessary). Similarly, changes in the number of TB tests conducted will have been impacted by guidelines that expanded eligibility for TB testing.
The NHLS informed us of the following caveats:
All counts reflect the number of tests captured on the NHLS TrakCare (LabTrak) Laboratory Information System (LIS) as at the time the counts were performed (21 October 2025).
A system-generated date from the time a sample was captured onto the LIS was used to total counts per month/year.
There may be anomalies in counts for a few months from July 2024 because of disruptions caused by a cyber-attack.
As test counts were requested, rejected tests and unreviewed results were included.
As test counts were requested, the counts provided reflect the number of tests done, not the number of patients tested, as multiple tests may be performed on one patient sample. For example, for a full blood count, each individual test was counted.
The “Pregnant or postnatal women” group was identified according to the NHLS maternal eGK (electronic gatekeeping) codes.
(We have amended the NHLS spreadsheet by inserting a new sheet with the above caveats and a link to this article. No other material changes have been made to the spreadsheet.)
When Karina Ledesma’s kidneys failed in high school, she was told she’d need a transplant – and a lifetime of immunosuppressive drugs to keep it working. But thanks to an experimental UCLA clinical trial, she’s now living with a kidney donated by her sister and no longer needs daily medications to protect it.
“It was such a relief to finally throw all the drugs away,” said Ledesma, 26. “I didn’t need to keep them here. I didn’t need to see them every day as a reminder. Tossing them all out was just a really great feeling.”
For nearly a year after her transplant, and before enrolling in the trial, Ledesma experienced troubling side effects from the immunosuppressive medications – insomnia, burning sensations in her fingers and toes and the constant need to plan her day around taking pills at 8am and 8pm.
Now she’s finally free from those burdens. Ledesma has been off her medications for just over a month, and her sister Rosa Rivera, 28, who donated the kidney, supported her through every step of the journey.
More patients may soon have the same opportunity. UCLA’s Dr. Jeffrey Veale has received a $6.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to expand the clinical trial that helped Ledesma.
His study explores delayed immune tolerance, which involves infusing donor-derived blood stem cells months or even years after a kidney transplant to retrain the recipient’s immune system with the aim of eliminating the need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs currently required to prevent organ rejection.
Veale and his team have already demonstrated early success with this approach, focusing solely on patients with a close-sibling match who had their transplant within the last five years. Starting in January 2026, the clinical trial will open to patients who have had kidney transplants up to 20 years ago.
Veale’s method works like this: After infusion, the donor stem cells integrate into the recipient’s bone marrow and immune system, creating a mixed population of donor and recipient immune cells — a state known as chimerism. This helps the recipient’s immune system recognize the transplanted kidney as “self,” reducing the risk of rejection and eliminating the need for ongoing immunosuppressive medications.
Of the six patients treated in the phase 1/2 trial to date, three are completely off immunosuppressive drugs, and the others are on a lower dose or successfully tapering.
“This could be the difference between managing end-stage renal disease as a chronic condition and actually curing it,” said Veale, professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. “A kidney transplant takes recipients most of the way there, but patients say being able to get off immunosuppressive drugs feels like truly being cured.”
Expanding the trial
The new grant will fund the enrollment of 10 additional patients in the trial and support research into the science behind immune tolerance, helping Veale and his team identify the biological mechanisms that make tolerance possible and uncover biomarkers that could predict which patients are most likely to benefit.
The clinical trial is currently only open to patients who have received a kidney donation from a well-matched sibling. Veale hopes that by understanding how tolerance occurs, he and others can pinpoint ways to make it possible in a broader range of donor-recipient types — and in more kinds of organ transplant cases.
“Right now, only a select group of patients qualify for this therapy,” said Veale, who is also director of the UCLA Kidney Exchange Program. “But if we can understand why tolerance works at the cellular level, we may be able to offer it to patients with less well-matched donors – or even extend it to liver and other transplants. That’s what makes this research so exciting. It’s not just about improving outcomes – it’s about unlocking immune tolerance for many more patients.”
Freeing more patients from the burden of immune suppression
Immunosuppressive medications, while essential for transplant success, come with serious — and sometimes life-threatening — side effects including infections, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Ironically, they can also cause damage to the very organ they’re meant to protect.
“These immunosuppressive drugs have not changed in decades,” Veale said. “They’re expensive, impair the recipient’s quality of life and decrease graft survival. Once patients start taking them, it’s just a matter of time until they’ll need another transplant.”
Approximately half of all kidney transplants fail within 15 years and many of the 90,000 people currently waiting for a kidney in the U.S. are heading for their second, third or fourth transplant.
Delayed tolerance could help turn the tide. Unlike earlier protocols that required simultaneous kidney and stem cell transplants, Veale’s method opens up immune tolerance for patients who received a kidney transplant years ago.
This not only makes it possible to treat patients who received their kidney transplant elsewhere but also enables the stem cell infusion to take place on an outpatient basis, without placing strain on hospital beds and resources.
Importantly, the delayed protocol opens the door for tolerance beyond kidney transplant, where the recipient can recover from their major surgery prior to receiving conditioning treatment and donor stem cell infusion.
“The beauty of doing it in a delayed fashion is that it takes all the pressure off the hospital,” said Veale. “The transplant has already occurred, whether it was done at UCLA or in another part of the world. Now the patient just comes in for an outpatient conditioning regimen and stem cell infusion. They get their treatment in the morning and are out and about in the afternoon. That’s what makes it so scalable.”
Understanding why tolerance works
Still, more research is needed to fully understand why delayed tolerance works and which patients are most likely to benefit.
Veale’s team will use the CIRM funding to analyse blood and tissue samples from trial participants to look for clues: changes in immune cell populations, cytokine profiles or signs of donor cells persisting in the organ itself. These insights could help researchers predict who will respond best to the protocol and guide the design of future trials involving mismatched pairs.
“With this funding, we can find out why tolerance works. We really don’t fully understand the immunology behind it,” Veale said. “For example, we’ve seen patients lose all signs of donor stem cells over time and yet remain tolerant and off their medications. That tells us something deeper is happening – maybe the donor stem cells re-educate the recipient’s immune system and leave a footprint we can’t yet detect. This grant gives us a chance to finally study what’s going on and learn how to replicate it in more patients.”
Ultimately, Veale hopes the research will help shift the transplant field’s focus from preserving organ function to preventing long-term harm – not just keeping donated kidneys working, but keeping recipients healthy and medication-free.
Wild type human prostate cells from an organoid. Credit: National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
A study co-led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that most of the benefits of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer occur within the first 9 to 12 months. Extending therapy beyond that provides only a small additional protection and increases the risk of other health problems, such as heart or metabolic issues. Results show that the ideal length of ADT depends on cancer risk:
Low-risk patients may not need ADT.
Intermediate-risk patients benefit most from 6 to 12 months.
High-risk patients may benefit from up to 12 months, while very high-risk patients may require longer therapy.
The study was published in the journal JAMA Oncology.
ADT is a type of hormone therapy that is commonly given alongside radiation to slow the growth of prostate cancer by lowering testosterone. While effective at controlling the disease, long-term ADT can cause side effects, including bone loss, muscle loss and cardiovascular problems. Current treatment guidelines generally recommend 4 to 6 months of ADT for intermediate-risk patients and 18 to 36 months for high-risk patients, but the optimal duration has been unclear.
Researchers conducted a Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials in Cancer of the Prostate (MARCAP) Consortium using data from 10 266 men across 13 international clinical trials. They assessed outcomes including overall survival, cancer-specific survival and deaths from other causes, comparing different ADT durations.
The findings highlight the importance of personalised treatment plans for men with prostate cancer. Shorter courses of hormone therapy may be sufficient for many patients, reducing side effects while maintaining effectiveness. Physicians can now use patient-specific factors, including cancer risk, overall health, age and preferences, to make more informed decisions about ADT duration, improving both safety and quality of life.
What if arthritis sufferers could take an immersive walk through a forest filled with soothing birdsong and then, with some help from hypnosis, come to experience their pain as separate from their body – and expel it?
That’s the goal of research led by David Ogez, a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Université de Montréal and a clinical researcher at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre.
Together with postdoctoral researcher Valentyn Fournier, Ogez is testing an approach that combines medical hypnosis and virtual reality (VR) to help seniors manage chronic arthritis pain in the hands, a common and debilitating condition.
Their research was published online last month in BMJ Open.
“Chronic pain is a major public-health issue that affects about one in five people in Canada and as many as one in three over the age of 60,” said Ogez. “It significantly impacts quality of life, mobility and mental health. But apart from pharmacological treatments, solutions are few.”
The problem lies in the limitations of drug treatments, including the risk of addiction to painkillers. This led Ogez and his team to explore complementary, non-invasive methods to help patients better manage their pain.
A powerful duo
Medical hypnosis is already recognized as an effective pain management tool, particularly in palliative care and post-operative settings. It relies on hypnotic suggestion—guided phrases that help patients alter their sensory and emotional perception of pain.
For example, patients may be asked to imagine submerging their sore hand in cold water, or be guided through controlled breathing techniques to synchronize their heartbeat and breathing to induce relaxation.
Ogez’s team wanted to take it one step further by combining the power of hypnosis with immersive virtual experiences.
Wearing a headset, the patient is transported to a Quebec landscape—a forest, mountains, a beach—accompanied by music and the sounds of nature. Developed in Quebec, this application was originally designed to give end-of-life patients the opportunity to “visit” places they never had the chance to see in real life.
Pairing hypnosis and VR makes it possible to visualize and manipulate pain, allowing patients to reclaim control of their bodies and their pain, research has shown.
One intervention being tested is the “magic hand.” In virtual reality, patients look at their hand and put little sparkles on the painful area to alleviate the pain. Another intervention involves guiding patients to “objectify” their pain: to make it visible on their hand and then remove it.
“The pain is still there, but…”
The researchers are also interested in the physiological mechanisms responsible for the pain relief provided by these techniques, which may resemble those associated with mindfulness.
One hypothesis is that VR distracts the brain. By intensely engaging vision, hearing and concentration, VR redirects mental resources that would otherwise be mobilized by pain. Hypnosis then reinforces this diversion of attention by guiding the patient toward pleasant sensations and gradual relief.
Neuroscience research has shown that these techniques modulate the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex and primary somatosensory cortex, two brain regions involved in the emotional and perceptual processing of pain.
“The pain is still there, but its unpleasantness and intensity are reduced,” explained Ogez.
Exposure to nature also provides psychological benefits. “Nature refreshes attention, directing the mind away from negative stimuli and restoring our ability to focus on positive ones,” said Fournier.
Promising preliminary results
Beyond the immediate calming or distracting effects of a treatment session combining hypnosis and VR, the new research aims to help patients develop self-hypnosis skills they can use at home.
The team is also working on developing a neurofeedback tool that patients can use to track and regulate their brain activity in real time in order to help them modulate their physiological responses during immersive VR experiences.
While the study is presently in the randomized clinical trial phase, the preliminary feedback from participants is encouraging, said Ogez.
“We’re seeing good patient satisfaction, although we mustn’t confuse satisfaction with effectiveness,” he cautioned. “Still, we’re hopeful, since pain is partly a subjective experience.”
Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of complications after stent implantation, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published in Diabetes Care. The study emphasises the importance of tailoring treatment strategies for this specific patient group.
Researchers have conducted a comprehensive study to investigate the risk of stent complications in patients with diabetes. The study consists of data from over 160 000 patients who received drug-eluting stents (small tubes placed in the coronary arteries of the heart that slowly release drugs to reduce the risk of the vessel becoming blocked again) between 2010 and 2020. The patients were divided into three groups: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and patients without diabetes.
Highest risk in type 1 diabetes
The results show that patients with type 1 diabetes have more than twice the risk of stent complications compared to patients without diabetes. For patients with type 2 diabetes, the risk is also elevated, but not as significantly. Complications include both narrowing of the artery in the stent and blood clots in the stent.
“Our results show that people with diabetes, especially type 1 diabetes, have a much higher risk of stent complications. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider how we treat these patients,” says first author Irene Santos-Pardo, researcher at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet.
Tailored treatment strategies
The study also shows that the risk of stent complications is highest during the first few months after stent implantation. During the first month, the incidence of stent complications was 9.27 per 100 person-years for patients with type 1 diabetes, compared with 4.34 for patients without diabetes. After six months, the risk decreased but remained higher for patients with diabetes.
“We need to continue to investigate how we can improve treatment for patients with diabetes who undergo stent implantation. Our results indicate that there is a need to adapt treatment and follow-up for them,” says last author Thomas Nyström, professor at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, and senior physician at Södersjukhuset,
Findings could lead to new treatments to improve metabolic health and reduce risks of obesity, diabetes
This image shows the seipin-adipogenin complex that is a critical driver of lipid droplet formation in fat cells. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center
A microprotein called adipogenin appears to play a key role in helping fat cells store lipid droplets – a phenomenon that’s pivotal for metabolic health, a study co-led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows. The findings, published in Science, could lead to new strategies to improve healthy lipid storage, which in turn may reduce risks of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic conditions.
“This study builds upon our long-standing interest in how fat cells maintain their cellular health upon expansion. We show that a tiny microprotein punches far above its weight in sculpting fat biology,” said Philipp Scherer, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology and Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at UT Southwestern.
Dr Scherer led the study with co-first authors Chao Li, PhD, and Xue-Nan Sun, PhD, Instructors of Internal Medicine at UTSW, and co-senior author Elina Ikonen, MD, PhD, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Helsinki.
After every meal, Dr Scherer explained, any lipids that aren’t burned immediately for energy must be stored in the body. The most common and healthy place to store lipids is in fat cells, or adipocytes, which stockpile these nutrients as droplets, much like oil forms droplets in water. Lipids stored in other cell types can cause a condition called lipotoxicity, spurring cell damage and cell death.
Previous research at UTSW and elsewhere has shown that a protein called seipin is critical for healthy lipid storage in a diverse range of organisms, including plants, fungi, and mammals. But how seipin accomplishes this feat has been unclear. Some studies have suggested that adipogenin – a small protein made of only 80 amino acids as compared with the hundreds found in seipin – is also important for lipid storage, but its exact function was unknown.
To answer these questions, the researchers isolated adipogenin along with its interacting proteins from mice, which produce a form of this microprotein that’s nearly identical to the one in humans. The most common binding partner for adipogenin turned out to be seipin.
Using cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that can image molecules at the atomic level, researchers showed that adipogenin appeared to reinforce seipin’s structure, making it more rigid and stable. Working with mouse models that overproduced adipogenin, the scientists found that their fat cells held significantly larger lipid droplets. They also stored considerably more fat than unaltered mice. In contrast, mouse models that produced no adipogenin had much smaller lipid droplets in their fat cells and less fat overall.
“This study nudges us a little closer to the clinic by revealing a brand-new handle on how fat cells store lipids, which matters enormously for obesity, diabetes, lipodystrophy, and fatty liver disease,” Dr Scherer said. “Adipogenin becomes a druggable lever on seipin’s machinery, with the promise to either dampen harmful fat buildup or boost healthy adipose storage when needed.”
A monthly injection has helped 90% of severe asthma patients reduce daily steroid tablets, which are associated with long-term side effects.More than half of the participants who had received the injection were able to stop their daily steroid tablets entirely, without any impact on their symptoms.
The clinical trial led by a King’s College London academic followed patients who had been injected with tezepelumab every four weeks for a year. Tezepelumab is a type of antibody which targets parts of the immune system, reducing lung inflammation.
Treatment with tezepelumab was also shown to significantly improve asthma symptoms, lung function, and overall quality of life. During the study, two-thirds of patients stopped having any asthma attacks. These improvements were seen as early as two weeks into treatment and lasted for the duration of the study.
Scientists are trying to identify alternative treatments for managing severe asthma, as long-term daily steroid use can lead to serious health problems, including osteoporosis, diabetes, and increased vulnerability to infections.
The WAYFINDER study, published inThe LancetRespiratory Medicine, is among long-standing research into severe asthma at King’s College London. Last year, another team at King’s discovered that another antibody, benralizamab, could be injected during some asthma and COPD attacks to reduce the need for further treatment. The latest discovery could help people manage their asthma long term.
Participants in the trial had a diagnosis of severe asthma and were recruited from 68 clinical centres across 11 countries. They received tezepelumab every four weeks and completed questionnaires on their asthma symptoms and medication at 28 and 52 weeks.
Professor David Jackson, Respiratory Medicine expert at King’s College London, and Clinical Lead of the asthma services across Guy’s and Royal Brompton Hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The WAYFINDER study is an important step forward for patients with the most severe form of asthma who require daily oral steroids in order to achieve reasonable disease control.
“In this International, multicentre clinical trial of more than 300 patients, the NICE-approved asthma treatment tezepelumab, a biologic therapy that targets asthma-related inflammation but without all the side effects of steroids, was capable of allowing the vast majority of patients to wean their steroids down to a low dose with over half able to stop their steroids altogether.
“As tezepelumab also suppresses allergy related symptoms and improves chronic rhinosinusitis as well, the results are particularly exciting for patients with severe asthma who suffer with both upper and lower airway symptoms.”
Dr Samantha Walker, Director of Research & Innovation at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “This study is a promising sign that tezepelumab injections support certain people with severe asthma to reduce or stop taking steroid tablets, which can have serious unwanted health consequences. Tezepelumab, an injectable biologic, significantly improves asthma symptoms, lung function and overall quality of life for participants.
“This is an incredibly encouraging development for the future of asthma care that could transform the lives of people with severe asthma. It’s vital that research into new types of treatment continues but we know current funding for lung health research is on life-support, despite lung conditions remaining the third biggest cause of death in the UK. Studies like this show the positive impact that research can make on providing potentially life-changing treatment for people with asthma and other lung conditions.”
The findings of the WAYFINDER study will be presented at the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2025 on Thursday 27th November 2025.
People who regularly consume polyphenol-rich foods and drinks, such as tea, coffee, berries, cocoa, nuts, whole grains and olive oil, may have better long-term heart health.
The research, led by King’s College London, found that those with higher adherence to polyphenol-rich dietary patterns had lower predicted cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
Polyphenols are natural compounds found in plants that are linked to various health benefits, including improved heart, brain, and gut health.
The study, published in BMC Medicine, followed more than 3100 adults from the TwinsUK cohort for over a decade, found that diets rich in specific groups of polyphenols were linked to healthier blood pressure and cholesterol profiles, contributing to lower CVD risk scores.
For the first time, the researchers also analysed a large number of metabolites in the urine that are produced when the body breaks down polyphenols.
These biomarkers confirmed that individuals with higher levels of polyphenol metabolites—especially those derived from specific groups of polyphenols, flavonoids and phenolic acids – had lower cardiovascular risk scores. They also had increased HDL cholesterol, also know as ‘good’ cholesterol.
The study used a newly developed polyphenol dietary score (PPS) to capture intake of 20 key polyphenol-rich foods commonly consumed in the UK, ranging from tea and coffee to berries, olive oil, nuts, and whole grains.
This score showed stronger associations with cardiovascular health than estimates of total polyphenol intake, likely because it captures overall dietary patterns rather than individual compounds.
This finding suggests that considering the whole diet provides a more accurate picture of how polyphenol-rich foods work together to support long-term heart health.
Our findings show that long-term adherence to polyphenol-rich diets can substantially slow the rise in cardiovascular risk as people age. Even small, sustained shifts towards foods like berries, tea, coffee, nuts, and whole grains may help protect the heart over time.”
Professor Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, Professor of Human Nutrition at King’s College London
Dr Yong Li, first author of the study, added: “This research provides strong evidence that regularly including polyphenol-rich foods in your diet is a simple and effective way to support heart health. These plant compounds are widely available in everyday foods, making this a practical strategy for most people.”
The researchers note that while cardiovascular risk naturally increases with age, higher polyphenol intake was associated with a slower progression of risk over the 11-year follow-up period. They also emphasise the need for future dietary intervention studies to further validate these associations.
A scientific study led by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and partly funded by the European Research Council (ERC) has determined that the size and composition of our social support networks directly influence how we perceive our body image. The findings could help us in treating conditions such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia, and other eating disorders.
Published in iScience, the study involved over 100 participants and used the “Footsteps Illusion,” an experiment in which the sounds of a person’s footsteps are modified in real time to simulate those of a lighter or heavier body. These auditory changes shift people’s perception of their own weight and trigger behavioral, emotional, and physiological variations, demonstrating how malleable body image is to sensory input.
Participants were asked to walk while listening to three types of footstep sounds: one unmodified, one with footsteps that sounded as if they were produced by a lighter body, and one with footsteps that sounded as if they were produced by a heavier body. In addition, participants answered questionnaires about their body image, possible symptoms of eating disorders, and the breadth of their social support networks.
The results of this experiment showed that people with larger and more diverse social networks were generally less influenced by the sound illusion and tended to be more satisfied with their body image and have fewer symptoms of eating disorders. Conversely, the modified effects of the steps were more intense in people with smaller social networks, leading to the conclusion that body perception and its malleability not only depend on immediate sensory stimuli but are also influenced by the social structure in which the person is integrated.
‘The implications of our study are that your circle of friends influences how you perceive your own body. If you have a wider circle of friends, you perceive your body in a more positive way,’ says Anxo Sánchez, a researcher in the Department of Mathematics at UC3M. ‘People would think that self-perception depends on oneself, but in reality it depends on the number of people who support you and surround you,’ explains another of the study’s authors, Amar D’Adamo, a researcher in the Department of Computer Science at UC3M.
These findings show that having broad and diverse social support reinforces the stability of body self-perception and protects against the influence of external signals that could distort it. This discovery, in turn, opens the door to new social interventions that serve to promote a more positive body image and mitigate the effects of weight-related stigma.
In addition, the team proposes the use of mobile applications to help people who may suffer from disorders associated with a negative self-perception of their own body: ‘At the i_mBODY Lab, we develop sensory technologies that allow us to change the perception of the body. We are also very focused on applications because we want to understand how we can use these technologies to support people,’ explains Ana Tajadura, head of the i_mBODY Lab, researcher at the Department of Computer Science at UC3M and ERC grantee.
Scientists at the University of Portsmouth have created the first detailed 3D map of how a crucial piece of connective tissue in our bodies responds to the stresses of movement and exercise. This tissue, called calcified fibrocartilage (CFC), acts like a biological shock absorber where tendons attach to bone.
Damage to the CFC tissue – common in sport-related injuries – does not mend well. To improve healing treatments, scientists need to better understand the structure of this tissue and how it reacts to varying types of pressure.
In areas where the microscopic cavities within the tissue (the lacunae) were more densely packed, the distortion was greater. This means that the way the tissue layers are arranged, and how thick they are, strongly influences how stretching (strain) is dispersed where the tendon meets the bone.
The study, published in the Nature journal Communications Materials, is the first to measure how differently tiny regions inside this tissue stretch or deform when forces are applied.
Until now, scientists couldn’t see exactly how this tissue behaves when put under pressure, making it nearly impossible to design effective treatments. The research team used high resolution 3D scanning and AI powered image reconstruction to map the way in which CFC tissue behaves under pressure in a mouse model, as well as how and where it might fail. Importantly, they were also able to identify the features that would be important for healing.
Better understanding of how these attachments fail under stress could help prevent common sports injuries. Tennis champion Andy Murray has battled hip tendon problems, England cricket captain Ben Stokes has dealt with recurring knee tendon issues, and footballer Harry Kane has faced ankle tendon injuries that kept him off the pitch.
Atousa said: “Once you know which parts experience the most stress and why, you can design better treatments and implants that actually replicate how the natural attachment works.”
Overseeing the study, was Professor Gordon Blunn from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. Professor Blunn said: “The weak link in the way that load is transferred from muscle to the skeleton is where the tendon joins with the bone. After injury this region is slow to heal and difficult to repair. Importantly, Atousa’s work identifies the way that load is naturally transferred in this region and serves as a model for the repair and regeneration of tissues at this site.”
