Abstract

Tendinopathy is a common disease that afflicts a wide range of people irrespective of age and gender. The underlying pathogenesis is still poorly understood. Since it is impossible to directly conduct experiments on humans, animal models of tendinopathy are essential not only to study its developmental mechanisms, but also to devise new treatment options for tendinopathy. Chemically-induced models are usually low-cost, reproducible, less labor-intensive and easy to perform. Chemicals that are currently being used to produce tendinopathy in animals include collagenase, cytokines, transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), fluoroquinolone, kartogenin, prostaglandin, statin, carrageenan and elastase. This paper discusses the development and use of animal models induced by chemicals.