Abstrakt
Tendons from newborn to elderly rabbits were monitored in intact states, primarily with label-free SHG microscopy and uniaxial tensile test. The results indicate that a strong global directionality in the longitudinal direction is present for all the animals in the intact tendons.
However, there is a significant difference in the tendon crimp pattern appearance. The phenomenon can be described by a sinusoidal wave.
The crimp amplitude (A) and wavelength (Λ) start at very low values for newborn animals and both change during ontogeny. In addition, this change is even more pronounced when observing the tendons under mechanical load.
These results are beneficial for the fields of biomechanical modelling, aging, and tissue engineering.