COL3A1 and disease of the tendon: Collagen III is a weaker collagen fibre produced in repairing tissues, whilst COL3A1 gene expression is elevated within several regions of the DDFT, the lack of correlations between COL3A1 expression and the histological parameters, especially collagen fibre alignment, at an eight week time point of sampling suggests that the tendinopathy within the DDFT is early and the reparative response is currently limited.