Screening for crucial biomarkers of tendon injury and repair in a rat model

The rat tendon injury models were established and divided into three groups: normal control group, injury model group, and celecoxib + lactoferrin treatment group. Then, RNA sequencing and differential expression analysis were performed for samples from injury model group and celecoxib + lactoferrin treatment group on day 14. Next, autophagy/hypoxia/ferroptosis/pyroptosis-related genes retrieved from the corresponding databases and related literatures were downloaded to obtain the genes associated with autophagy/hypoxia/ferroptosis/pyroptosis. Subsequently, functional annotation, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and transcriptional regulatory network construction for these genes were performed.