A Phase 1 interventional study of E-CEL UVEC in Rotator Cuff Tears, Muscle Atrophy or Weakness and Tendon Rupture - Shoulder, sponsored by Hospital for Special Surgery, New York. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 45 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-06.
Sponsored by Hospital for Special Surgery, New York · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment
This is a phase 1b investigator-initiated clinical trial that will evaluate the safety and feasibility of E-CEL UVEC® cells with the aim of improving outcomes for patients with full-thickness rotator cuff tears who undergo arthroscopic surgical repair.
Allogeneic E-CEL UVEC cells will be delivered to the tendon repair site and to the muscle adjacent to the tendon repair site.
Full-thickness rotator cuff tears present a clinical challenge, often with occurrence of re-tears after surgical repair and a slow rate of complete functional recovery, which limits daily functional tasks and has negative impacts on qualify-of-life. The frequency of failed healing and re-tear following repair is more pronounced in patients over age 60 due to age-related, intrinsic degenerative changes involving the muscle, tendon, and enthesis.
Healing of the enthesis, the site of tendon attachment to the bone, can be compromised due to microvascular and vascular niche deficiencies resulting from various causes including aging, prior injuries, and/or tissue degeneration.
There is currently no approved adjunct biologic therapy to improve surgical repairs of full rotator cuff tear, enhance post-operative recovery, and decrease the risk of re-tear. This trial will investigate the safety and feasibility of local implantation of E-CEL UVEC cells along with standard-of-care arthroscopic surgical repair of full rotator cuff tears. E-CEL UVEC cells are proprietary allogeneic human umbilical vein endothelial cells produced under cGMP and cGTP regulations.
631 studies on the registry are indexed under Rotator Cuff Injuries; 156 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 60 across 456 interventional studies indexed under Rotator Cuff Injuries.
Browse Rotator Cuff Injuries studies →Hospital for Special Surgery, New York is the lead sponsor of 226 studies on the registry; 40 are open to participants now.
Of its 30 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 22 (73%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
BMI (body mass index)
Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.
What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients will receive an injection of the Cell therapy vehicle into their supraspinatus muscle and tendon at the time of rotator cuff repair. E-CEL UVEC cells suspended in autologous plasma and combined with thrombin at the implantation site (tendon delivery). E-CEL UVEC cells suspended in 6.0% Dextran 40 and 10.0% human serum albumin (HSA) (infusion solution) (muscle delivery).
Drug: E-CEL UVEC
Local implantation of E-CEL UVEC cells at the supraspinatus tendon repair site
Short-term safety
The primary study outcomes are measures of local and systemic safety and toxicity via adverse event (AE) logs (post-operative day 0 to Day 11). AE are evaluated using a 5 point severity scale to grade the AE, 1 (mild) to 5 (death/ fatal).
Time frame: 0 surgery to +11 days post op
Long-term safety
The primary study outcomes are measures of local and systemic safety and toxicity via symptom reporting (post-operative day +90 to 1 year post-op). Symptom reporting will evaluate pain and swelling based on a 0 to 100mm visual analog scale range, in addition to further symptom reporting.
Time frame: post-operative 90 day to 1 year following the surgical repair
MRI
Re-tear rate based on clinical and MRI evaluation for MRI assessments of muscle and tendon quality, measured as a percentage of total volume (%).
Time frame: post-operative 90 day to 1 year
Strength
Shoulder strength during regular intervals post-operatively up to 1 year. BioDex system 3 will measure Peak Toque in Nm, scapular plane abduction strength 0-90 degrees.
Time frame: post-operative 90 day to 1 year
PROMS
Patient-reported outcomes post-operatively up to 1 year. ASES affected vs unaffected shoulder score (each test has a maximum score of 100 points).
Time frame: post-operative 90 day to 1 year
Started Nov 2019 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Oct 2027, 95 months after the start.
Since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026, the dates moved once, on Nov 6, 2026: primary completion Oct 2026 → Oct 2027 and completion Oct 2026 → Oct 2028.
Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Nov 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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