Stochastic amplitude-modulated stretching of rabbit flexor digitorum profundus tendons reduces stiffness compared to cyclic loading but does not affect tenocyte metabolism

BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

Benjamin Gantenbein-Ritter¹  Stephen J Ferguson²  Alexander Bürki¹  Thomas H Steiner² 

[1] Institute for Surgical Technology and Biomechanics, University of Bern, Stauffacherstrasse 78, Bern, CH-3014, Switzerland;Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

关键词: Cell activity;    Gene expression;    Proteoglycan production;    Strain control;    Stochastic amplitude-modulation;    Tensile stiffness;    Tendon;   

Others  :  1135729
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2474-13-222

 received in 2012-02-13, accepted in 2012-11-08,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

It has been demonstrated that frequency modulation of loading influences cellular response and metabolism in 3D tissues such as cartilage, bone and intervertebral disc. However, the mechano-sensitivity of cells in linear tissues such as tendons or ligaments might be more sensitive to changes in strain amplitude than frequency. Here, we hypothesized that tenocytes in situ are mechano-responsive to random amplitude modulation of strain.

Methods

We compared stochastic amplitude-modulated versus sinusoidal cyclic stretching. Rabbit tendon were kept in tissue-culture medium for twelve days and were loaded for 1h/day for six of the total twelve culture days. The tendons were randomly subjected to one of three different loading regimes: i) stochastic (2 – 7% random strain amplitudes), ii) cyclic_RMS (2–4.42% strain) and iii) cyclic_high (2 - 7% strain), all at 1 Hz and for 3,600 cycles, and one unloaded control.

Results

At the end of the culture period, the stiffness of the “stochastic” group was significantly lower than that of the cyclic_RMS and cyclic_high groups (both, p < 0.0001). Gene expression of eleven anabolic, catabolic and inflammatory genes revealed no significant differences between the loading groups.

Conclusions

We conclude that, despite an equivalent metabolic response, stochastically stretched tendons suffer most likely from increased mechanical microdamage, relative to cyclically loaded ones, which is relevant for tendon regeneration therapies in clinical practice.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Steiner et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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