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Local Strain Measurement within Tendon
Author(s) -
Screen H. R. C.,
Bader D. L.,
Lee D. A.,
Shelton J. C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
strain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.477
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1475-1305
pISSN - 0039-2103
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-1305.2004.00164.x
Subject(s) - tendon , fascicle , shearing (physics) , materials science , strain (injury) , confocal , anatomy , matrix (chemical analysis) , biomedical engineering , collagen fibres , displacement (psychology) , connective tissue , composite material , biophysics , biology , optics , physics , engineering , psychology , genetics , psychotherapist
Tendon is a dense connective tissue, responsible for transmitting the forces generated by muscles to the skeleton. It is composed of a hierarchical arrangement of crimped collagen fibres, interspersed with proteoglycan matrix and cells, known as tenocytes. During physiological loading, tendons are subjected to strains in the region of 5–6%, which result in the straightening and realignment of the collagen fibres, generating variable local strain fields within the tendon. This study demonstrates a technique for analysing local strains within viable tendon explants, during both loading and unloading of the tissue. Samples were strained in a custom‐designed rig, allowing real‐time visualisation of cell nuclei, used as local discrete markers, on a confocal microscope. Results indicated that local strains within the fascicle are smaller than the applied strains, never exceeding 1.2%, even at 8% gross applied strain. By contrast, the sliding of adjacent collagen units was recorded at each strain increment in this study, reaching a mean maximum of 3.9% of the applied displacement. Loading–unloading studies indicated that sliding behaviour is reversible up to strains of 5%, and provides the major extension mechanism within the rat‐tail tendon. This technique can be extended to further analyse shearing behaviour within the matrix.