Rotator cuff injuries are associated with atrophy and fat infiltration into the muscle, commonly referred to as “fatty degeneration.” As the poor function of chronically torn muscles may limit recovery after surgical repair, there is considerable interest in finding therapies to enhance muscle regeneration. Stromal vascular fraction stem cells (SVFCs) can improve muscle regeneration in other chronic injury states, and our objective was to evaluate the ability of SVFCs to reduce fibrosis and fat accumulation, and enhance muscle fibre specific force production after chronic rotator cuff tear.

Chronic supraspinatus tears were induced in adult immunodeficient rats, and repaired one month following tear. Rats received vehicle control, or injections of 3 × 10⁵ or 3 × 10⁶ human SVFCs into supraspinatus muscles.

Two weeks following repair, we detected donor human DNA and protein in SVFC treated muscles. There was a 40 % reduction in fibrosis in the treated groups compared to controls (p = 0.03 for 3 × 10⁵, p = 0.04 for 3 × 10⁶), and no differences between groups for lipid content or force production were observed.

As there has been much interest in the use of stem cell-based therapies in musculoskeletal regenerative medicine, the reduction in fibrosis and trend towards an improvement in single fiber contractility suggest that SVFCs may be beneficial to enhance the treatment and recovery of patients with chronic rotator cuff tears.