Telocytes: Connective tissue repair and communication cells

The mechanotransduction features of !broblasts are well established, with the potential for different degrees, durations frequency and direction of biomechanical loading (as in myofascial release) and unloading (as in counterstrain), having been shown, in in-vitro studies, to have predictable effects on tissue remodelling and inflammatory processes (as examples) (Zein-Hamoud and Standley, 2015). Mechanosensitivity has now also been identi!ed as a feature of telocytes - a highly versatile, newly identi!ed, different category of connective tissue cell, that is also active in repair and regeneration, recently described and characterized by Popescu et al. (2011), in Bucharest, Romania. (Cretoiu, 2016). The question therefore arises as to how, and to what degree, appropriately applied biomechanical load, associated with the therapeutic use of movement and manual treatment, may be capable of positively in"uencing these connective tissue cells in their known homeostatic roles?