Tendon being a hypocellular, low vascularized tissue often requires assistance for restoration after complete tear. Tendon tissue engineering aims in the development of suitable scaffold that could support the regeneration of tendon after damage. The success of such scaffolds is dependent on its integration with the native tissue which in turn is influenced by the cell-material interaction. In this work aligned poly(ε-caprolactone)/collagen (PCL/collagen) multiscale fibers were developed and plasma treatment using argon, nitrogen and its combination was accessed for inducing tenogenic differentiation in mesenchymal stem cells. The developed fibers mimicked tendon extracellular matrix (ECM) which upon plasma treatment maintained moderate hydrophilicity. Oxygen and nitrogen containing groups were observed to be incorporated after argon and nitrogen treatment respectively. Statistically significant (p < 0.001) enhancement was observed in average and root mean square (RMS) roughness after plasma treatment with the maximum in argon treated fibers. Vitronectin was competitively (statistically significant, p < 0.05) adsorbed after argon and combination treatment whereas nitrogen treatment led to the competitive adsorption of fibronectin (statistically significant, p < 0.05). Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) showed enhanced proliferation and attachment on plasma treated fibers. Increased porosity due to the presence of sacrificial collagen nanofibers improved cell infiltration which was further enhanced upon plasma treatment. RhoA activation was observed (statistically significant, p < 0.05) on aligned PCL/collagen multiscale fibers and PCL microfibers, which proved its impact on tenogenic differentiation. Further enhancement in rhoA expression was observed on argon (p < 0.01) and combination plasma (p < 0.05) treated fibers. Tenogenic differentiation of hMSCs was enhanced (statistically significant) on argon plasma treated aligned fibers which was confirmed by the expression of scleraxis, mohawk (early markers) and tenomodulin (late marker) at protein level and mohawk, collagen I, collagen III (early markers), thrombospondin 4 and tenascin C (late markers) at gene level. Thus argon plasma treatment on aligned fibers is an effective method to induce tenogenesis even in non-tenogenic media.

肌腱是一种细胞少、血管化程度低的组织，在完全撕裂后通常需要帮助才能恢复。肌腱组织工程旨在开发合适的支架，以支持损伤后肌腱的再生。这种支架的成功取决于它与天然组织的整合，而天然组织又受到细胞-材料相互作用的影响。在这项工作中，开发了对齐的聚（ε-己内酯）/胶原蛋白（PCL/胶原蛋白）多尺度纤维，并使用氩、氮及其组合进行等离子体处理，以诱导间充质干细胞的肌腱分化。开发的纤维模仿肌腱细胞外基质 (ECM)，经等离子体处理后保持适度的亲水性。分别在氩和氮处理后观察到含有氧和氮的基团被掺入。统计显着（p  < 0.001) 在等离子处理后观察到平均和均方根 (RMS) 粗糙度的增强，在氩处理的纤维中最大。在氩气和联合处理后，玻连蛋白被竞争性吸附（统计学显着，p < 0.05）  ，而氮处理导致纤连蛋白的竞争性吸附（统计学显着，p  < 0.05）。人间充质干细胞 (hMSCs) 在等离子体处理的纤维上表现出增强的增殖和附着。由于牺牲性胶原纳米纤维的存在而增加的孔隙率改善了细胞浸润，这在等离子体处理后进一步增强。观察到 RhoA 激活（具有统计学意义，p < 0.05）在对齐的 PCL/胶原多尺度纤维和 PCL 微纤维上，这证明了它对肌腱分化的影响。在氩气 ( p  < 0.01) 和联合血浆 ( p  < 0.05) 处理的纤维上观察到 rhoA 表达的进一步增强。在氩等离子体处理的对齐纤维上，hMSCs 的肌腱分化增强（统计学显着），这通过在蛋白质水平和莫霍克、胶原蛋白 I、胶原蛋白 III（早期标记物）的巩膜、莫霍克（早期标志物）和腱调节蛋白（晚期标志物）的表达得到证实)、血小板反应蛋白 4 和肌腱蛋白 C（晚期标志物）在基因水平。因此，对对齐的纤维进行氩等离子体处理是一种有效的方法，即使在非生根介质中也能诱导肌腱生成。