Mechanical stretch and hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha affect the vascular endothelial growth factor and the connective tissue growth factor in cultured ACL fibroblasts

Our results demonstrated that mechanical stretch and CoCl₂-induced HIF-1α together increased the level of MMP-2 and decreased the levels of VEGF and CTGF in cultured ACL fibroblasts. The differential expression and production of HIF-1α, VEGF, MMP-2, and CTGF might help to explain the poor healing ability of ACL.