Confirming the trends from the single transcript analysis, GSEA revealed a positive enrichment of the IL-6/JAK/STAT pathway (q-value: 0.003) alongside gene sets matching well-known tendinopathy hallmarks such as neo-vascularization (i.e. angiogenesis, mTORC1 signaling) and hypercellularity (i.e. G2M checkpoint, mitotic spindle, MYC targets v1, epithelial mesenchymal transition, and E2F targets) in the tendinopathic samples compared to the normal controls (Figure 1C and D). This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and disease of the tendon.