Mechanotransduction is how a tenocyte (a tendon cell) senses physical load and turns it into a biological signal — one that changes how much collagen the cell makes and how it’s organized. It’s the mechanism behind a finding that reshaped tendon rehab: gradual loading, not rest, is what drives recovery from a chronic tendon injury.
Researchers found that a program of heavy, progressive loading — the Alfredson protocol — outperformed passive rest for chronic Achilles tendon pain in the study that established the approach.[1] This same loading principle underlies the tendon continuum model, which describes tendon health as responsive to how it’s been loaded, not fixed in place.[2]
Mechanotransduction is well supported as the mechanism behind loading-based rehab. It does not, on its own, show that any injectable peptide speeds up this process in a human tendon — that’s a separate, largely untested claim.