{
  "abstract": "We analysed five predefined programmes across three human tendon transcriptomic contexts: acute exercise-associated fibroblast pseudobulks (E-MTAB-15400; 4 control and 4 exercise samples), mechanically stretched donor-derived cells (GSE150482; 3 normal and 3 tendinopathy donors), and paired lesional versus grossly normal-appearing tendon (GSE26051; 23 donor pairs). Inference was conducted at the sample, donor or donor-pair level. Non-stimulated GSE150482 single-cell RNA sequencing comprised only N1 and D1, whereas stretched single-cell RNA sequencing comprised N1-N3 and D1-D3; the conditions also used Drop-seq and 10X Chromium, respectively. A donor-replicated disease-by-stimulation interaction is therefore not estimable. Within-context Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment supported acute mechanical-response, extracellular-matrix (ECM) and protein-folding differences and paired-lesion collagen, integrin and ECM differences, but no stretched donor-background difference. Exact label permutations, a conservative global 15-test adjustment, leave-one-unit analyses, a Fib1-Fib4 pooled sensitivity and a paired exact Wilcoxon sensitivity qualified these findings. Integrin was fully nested in ECM, while collagen overlapped 52/79 genes with ECM. Collagen fibril organization showed the most directionally consistent matrix-associated pattern across the three non-equivalent contrasts, without establishing a disease-specific loading response or causal mechanism. The analysis demonstrates why public tendon datasets must be integrated by estimand and biological inference unit rather than pooled as interchangeable replications.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Yunnan Normal University"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Y. Liu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Z. Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Q. Peng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "B. Chen"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7bp9s4zg901dw.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.11.750964",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750964v1.full",
  "id": "7bp9s4zg901dw",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750964v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "bioinformatics"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2732|Tendon Structure and Treatment"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213471299",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750964v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-11",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7bp9s4zg901dw.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:22:46Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.11.750964",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.11.750964v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:bioinformatics",
      "subfield": "bioinformatics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Estimand-aware and donor-aware triangulation of predefined gene-set signals across human tendon transcriptomic datasets",
  "title_text": "Estimand-aware and donor-aware triangulation of predefined gene-set signals across human tendon transcriptomic datasets",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:22:46Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7bp9s4zg901dw",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}