Data availability
The raw sequence data of Single-cell RNA sequencing and RNA-Seq reported in this paper have been deposited in the Genome Sequence Archive43 in National Genomics Data Center44, China National Center for Bioinformation/Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences with accessions CRA019874 and CRA019760. Source data are provided with this paper.
Code availability
Data analyses were performed using R system software (version 4.0.5; https://www.r-project.org/), along with packages from the Bioconductor project, as well as original R code. This paper does not utilize any custom-written code.
References
-
Liu, M., López de Juan Abad, B. & Cheng, K. Cardiac fibrosis: myofibroblast-mediated pathological regulation and drug delivery strategies. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 173, 504–19 (2021).
-
Hernandez-Gea, V. & Friedman, S. L. Pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. Annu. Rev. Pathol. 6, 425–56 (2011).
-
Wijsenbeek, M. & Cottin, V. Spectrum of fibrotic lung diseases. N. Engl. J. Med. 383, 958–68 (2020).
-
Harvey, T., Flamenco, S. & Fan, C. M. A Tppp3(+)Pdgfra(+) tendon stem cell population contributes to regeneration and reveals a shared role for PDGF signalling in regeneration and fibrosis. Nat. Cell Biol. 21, 1490–503 (2019).
-
Karsdal, M. A. et al. The good and the bad collagens of fibrosis—their role in signaling and organ function. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 121, 43–56 (2017).
-
Yelin, E., Weinstein, S. & King, T. The burden of musculoskeletal diseases in the United States. Semin. Arthritis Rheum. 46, 259–60 (2016).
-
Havis, E. et al. TGFβ and FGF promote tendon progenitor fate and act downstream of muscle contraction to regulate tendon differentiation during chick limb development. Development 143, 3839–51 (2016).
-
Havis, E. et al. Transcriptomic analysis of mouse limb tendon cells during development. Development 141, 3683–96 (2014).
-
Liu, C. et al. Disrupted tenogenesis in masseter as a potential cause of micrognathia. Int. J. Oral. Sci. 14, 50 (2022).
-
Rana, R. et al. Impaired 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 action underlies enthesopathy development in the Hyp mouse model of X-linked hypophosphatemia. JCI Insight 8, e163259 (2023).
-
Tokunaga, T. et al. FGF-2 stimulates the growth of tenogenic progenitor cells to facilitate the generation of tenomodulin-positive tenocytes in a rat rotator cuff healing model. Am. J. Sports Med. 43, 2411–22 (2015).
-
Liu, S. et al. Tendon healing and anti-adhesion properties of electrospun fibrous membranes containing bFGF loaded nanoparticles. Biomaterials 34, 4690–701 (2013).
-
Livingston, M. J. et al. Tubular cells produce FGF2 via autophagy after acute kidney injury leading to fibroblast activation and renal fibrosis. Autophagy 19, 256–77 (2023).
-
Kim, Y. S., Lee, J. S., Jeong, M. Y., Jang, J. W. & Kim, M. S. Recombinant human fibroblast growth factor 7 obtained from stable Chinese hamster ovary cells enhances wound healing. Biotechnol. J. 19, e2300596 (2024).
-
Mongiat, M. et al. The protein core of the proteoglycan perlecan binds specifically to fibroblast growth factor-7. J. Biol. Chem. 275, 7095–100 (2000).
-
Hayes, A. J., Farrugia, B. L., Biose, I. J., Bix, G. J. & Melrose, J. Perlecan, a multi-functional, cell-instructive, matrix-stabilizing proteoglycan with roles in tissue development has relevance to connective tissue repair and regeneration. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 10, 856261 (2022).
-
Geervliet, E., Terstappen, L. & Bansal, R. Hepatocyte survival and proliferation by fibroblast growth factor 7 attenuates liver inflammation, and fibrogenesis during acute liver injury via paracrine mechanisms. Biomed. Pharmacother. 167, 115612 (2023).
-
Zhang, H. et al. Cell-subpopulation alteration and FGF7 activation regulate the function of tendon stem/progenitor cells in 3D microenvironment revealed by single-cell analysis. Biomaterials 280, 121238 (2022).
-
Ren, Y. et al. Gene expression of Postn and FGF7 in canine chordae tendineae and their effects on flexor tenocyte biology. J. Orthop. Res. 42, 961–72 (2024).
-
He, S. et al. Spatial-temporal proliferation of hepatocytes during pregnancy revealed by genetic lineage tracing. Cell Stem Cell 30, 1549–58.e5 (2023).
-
He, L. et al. Proliferation tracing reveals regional hepatocyte generation in liver homeostasis and repair. Science 371, eabc4346 (2021).
-
Liu, X., Weng, W., He, L. & Zhou, B. Genetic recording of in vivo cell proliferation by ProTracer. Nat. Protoc. 18, 2349–73 (2023).
-
Fan, C. et al. A Cd9(+)Cd271(+) stem/progenitor population and the SHP2 pathway contribute to neonatal-to-adult switching that regulates tendon maturation. Cell Rep. 39, 110762 (2022).
-
Mienaltowski, M. J., Adams, S. M. & Birk, D. E. Regional differences in stem cell/progenitor cell populations from the mouse achilles tendon. Tissue Eng. Part A 19, 199–210 (2013).
-
Chen, W. et al. Lysyl oxidase (LOX) family members: rationale and their potential as therapeutic targets for liver fibrosis. Hepatology 72, 729–41 (2020).
-
Tzanidis, A. et al. Direct actions of urotensin II on the heart: implications for cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy. Circ. Res. 93, 246–53 (2003).
-
Mölleken, C. et al. Direct-acting antivirals-based therapy decreases hepatic fibrosis serum biomarker microfibrillar-associated protein 4 in hepatitis C patients. Clin. Mol. Hepatol. 25, 42–51 (2019).
-
Liu, Q. et al. DDX5 inhibits hyaline cartilage fibrosis and degradation in osteoarthritis via alternative splicing and G-quadruplex unwinding. Nat. Aging 4, 664–80 (2024).
-
Grinstein, M. et al. A distinct transition from cell growth to physiological homeostasis in the tendon. Elife 8, e48689 (2019).
-
Zhang, C. et al. Histone deacetylase inhibitor treated cell sheet from mouse tendon stem/progenitor cells promotes tendon repair. Biomaterials 172, 66–82 (2018).
-
Russo, V. et al. Scaffold-mediated immunoengineering as innovative strategy for tendon regeneration. Cells 11, 266 (2022).
-
Schweitzer, R., Zelzer, E. & Volk, T. Connecting muscles to tendons: tendons and musculoskeletal development in flies and vertebrates. Development 137, 2807–17 (2010).
-
Brent, A. E., Schweitzer, R. & Tabin, C. J. A somitic compartment of tendon progenitors. Cell 113, 235–48 (2003).
-
Edom-Vovard, F., Schuler, B., Bonnin, M. A., Teillet, M. A. & Duprez, D. Fgf4 positively regulates scleraxis and tenascin expression in chick limb tendons. Dev. Biol. 247, 351–66 (2002).
-
Brown, J. P., Finley, V. G. & Kuo, C. K. Embryonic mechanical and soluble cues regulate tendon progenitor cell gene expression as a function of developmental stage and anatomical origin. J. Biomech. 47, 214–22 (2014).
-
Eloy-Trinquet, S., Wang, H., Edom-Vovard, F. & Duprez, D. Fgf signaling components are associated with muscles and tendons during limb development. Dev. Dyn. 238, 1195–206 (2009).
-
Li, K., Zhang, X., Wang, D., Tuan, R. S. & Ker, D. Synergistic effects of growth factor-based serum-free medium and tendon-like substrate topography on tenogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells. Biomater. Adv. 146, 213316 (2023).
-
Li, B. et al. Early cellular responses of BMSCs genetically modified with bFGF/BMP2 co-cultured with ligament fibroblasts in a three-dimensional model in vitro. Int. J. Mol. Med. 38, 1578–86 (2016).
-
Zinkle, A. & Mohammadi, M. Structural biology of the FGF7 subfamily. Front. Genet. 10, 102 (2019).
-
Wang, T. et al. Load-induced regulation of tendon homeostasis by SPARC, a genetic predisposition factor for tendon and ligament injuries. Sci. Transl. Med. 13, eabe5738 (2021). pii.
-
Yin, Z. et al. The regulation of tendon stem cell differentiation by the alignment of nanofibers. Biomaterials 31, 2163–75 (2010).
-
Zhang, Y. et al. 3D printing of chemical-empowered tendon stem/progenitor cells for functional tissue repair. Biomaterials 271, 120722 (2021).
-
Chen, T. et al. The genome sequence archive family: toward explosive data growth and diverse data types. Genomics Proteom. Bioinforma. 19, 578–83 (2021).
-
CNCB-NGDC Members and Partners. Database Resources of the National Genomics Data Center, China National Center for Bioinformation in 2022. Nucleic Acids Res. 50, D27–D28 (2022).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFA1106800), NSFC grants (T2121004, 82222044, 32471211, 82302726), and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (2024SSYS0026). We extend our gratitude to Professor Bin Zhou from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences for providing the ProTracer mice. We also acknowledge Shuangshuang Liu and Wei Yi from the Core Facilities, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, for their technical support. Our thanks extend to the Analysis Center of Agrobiology and Environment Sciences of Zhejiang University for their technical assistance. We also thank the Center of Cryo-Electron Microscopy (CCEM), Zhejiang University for technical assistance with transmission electron microscopy.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Source data
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Lin, R., Luo, J., Zhang, H. et al. FGF7 promotes load-bearing tendon regeneration and suppresses fibrosis. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67355-7
-
Received:
-
Accepted:
-
Published:
-
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67355-7
