As the human population ages and the life expectancy increases,tendon injuries will become more prevalent,especially among young individuals.Though the traditional operative therapy for tendon lesion can relieve the suffering of patients,the functional reconstruction is usually not optimistic.Tissue engineering is an advancing field,as the technology of construction in vitro and application in vivo matures,that can provide a more promising approach for tendon repair without tendon autograft.Challenges and future directions in the field of tendon tissue engineering focusing on four key parameters:seed cells,novel scaffolds,and mechanical stimulation.Recently,the discovery of TDSCs (tendon-derived stem cells) provides new ideas for the selection of seed cells and effect of mechanical stimulation on the tendon tissue engineering has become a hot spot.This article provides a review of recent progress in research about seed cells,scaffolds and mechanical stimulation for tendon engineering,and also speculates on the development in the future.