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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Oct 26, 2025; 17(10): 112397
Published online Oct 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i10.112397
Published online Oct 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i10.112397
Engineering ligament tissues: Synergistic power of aligned nanofibers and cyclic stretch
Atharva A Mahajan, Cancer Research Institute, Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer, Navi Mumbai 410210, Maharashtra, India
Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran, Byeong-Cheol Ahn, BK21 FOUR KNU Convergence Educational Program of Biomedical Sciences for Creative Future Talents, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, South Korea
Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran, Prakash Gangadaran, Byeong-Cheol Ahn, Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, South Korea
Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran, Prakash Gangadaran, Byeong-Cheol Ahn, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, South Korea
Byeong-Cheol Ahn, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu 41944, South Korea
Co-first authors: Atharva A Mahajan and Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran.
Co-corresponding authors: Prakash Gangadaran and Byeong-Cheol Ahn.
Author contributions: Mahajan AA, Rajendran RL, Gangadaran P, and Ahn BC designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript, contributed to the discussion and design of the manuscript, manuscript writing and editing, illustrations, and the literature review. Mahajan AA and Rajendran RL contributed equally to this work and are regarded as co–first authors. Gangadaran P and Ahn BC served as co-corresponding authors and contributed equally to the supervision, critical revision, and final approval of the manuscript.
Supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, No. NRF-2022R1I1A1A01068652.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Byeong-Cheol Ahn, MD, PhD, Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, No. 680 Gukchaebosang ro, Jung gu, Daegu 41944, South Korea. abc2000@knu.ac.kr
Received: July 28, 2025
Revised: August 22, 2025
Accepted: October 9, 2025
Published online: October 26, 2025
Processing time: 91 Days and 8.6 Hours
Revised: August 22, 2025
Accepted: October 9, 2025
Published online: October 26, 2025
Processing time: 91 Days and 8.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Yang et al demonstrate that aligned nanofiber scaffolds combined with cyclic strain synergistically promote tenogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. This biomimetic strategy mimics native ligament cues and remains effective even under Rho-associated protein kinase inhibition, offering a promising, clinically translatable approach for engineering functional ligament grafts in regenerative medicine.