In tendons, differing physiological requirements lead to functionally distinct nanostructures

Andrew S. Quigley, Stéphane Bancelin, Dylan Deska-Gauthier, François Légaré, Laurent Kreplak, Samuel P. Veres
Sci Rep. 2018-03-13; 8(1):
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22741-8

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Quigley AS(1), Bancelin S(2), Deska-Gauthier D(3), Légaré F(2), Kreplak L(4)(5), Veres SP(6)(7).

Author information:
(1)Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
(2)Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Énergie, Matériaux, Télécommunication, Varennes, Canada.
(3)Department of Medical Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
(4)Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
(5)School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
(6)School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
(7)Division of Engineering, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada.

The collagen-based tissues of animals are hierarchical structures: even tendon,
the simplest collagenous tissue, has seven to eight levels of hierarchy.
Tailoring tissue structure to match physiological function can occur at many
different levels. We wanted to know if the control of tissue architecture to
achieve function extends down to the nanoscale level of the individual,
cable-like collagen fibrils. Using tendons from young adult bovine forelimbs, we
performed stress-strain experiments on single collagen fibrils extracted from
tendons with positional function, and tendons with energy storing function.
Collagen fibrils from the two tendon types, which have known differences in
intermolecular crosslinking, showed numerous differences in their responses to
elongation. Unlike those from positional tendons, fibrils from energy storing
tendons showed high strain stiffening and resistance to disruption in both
molecular packing and conformation, helping to explain how these high stress
tissues withstand millions of loading cycles with little reparative remodeling.
Functional differences in load-bearing tissues are accompanied by important
differences in nanoscale collagen fibril structure.

 

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