Fig. 1

Diseased tendon tissues express markers of stromal fibroblast activation. a mRNA expression of stromal fibroblast activation markers podoplanin (PDPN), CD248 and CD106 in healthy subscapularis tendons and diseased and post-treatment supraspinatus tendons. Bar shows median values. Statistically significant differences were calculated using the Kruskal-Wallis test with the pairwise post hoc Mann-Whitney U test; **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. b Representative images of 3,3’-diaminobenzidine immunostaining (brown) for PDPN, CD248 and CD106 in healthy, diseased and post-treatment supraspinatus tendons. Nuclear counterstain is haematoxylin. Scale bar 50 μm. c and d Representative immunofluorescence images of sections of diseased supraspinatus tendons stained for markers of stromal activation (PDPN, green; CD248 and CD106, purple) and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) (red). Cyan represents POPO-1 nuclear counterstain. Scale bar 20 μm