d="abspara0015">All animals were subjected to a unilateral supraspinatus detachment and repair surgery, with contralateral limbs serving as within-animal comparative data. Animals continued their respective diet courses, and their supraspinatus tendons were biomechanically or histologically evaluated at 2, 4, and 8 weeks postoperatively.
d="abspara0020">Biomechanical testing revealed a significant reduction in normalized stiffness in hypercholesterolemic rats compared with controls at 4 weeks after injury, whereas histologic analyses showed no significant differences in collagen organization, cellularity, or cell shape between groups.
d="abspara0025">On the basis of our findings, hypercholesterolemia may have a detrimental biomechanical effect on tendon healing in our rat rotator cuff injury and repair model.