spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pike, A. V.
Right arrow Articles by Alexander, R. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pike, A. V.
Right arrow Articles by Alexander, R. M.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 203, Issue 14 2187-2193, Copyright © 2000 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

The development of fatigue quality in high- and low-stressed tendons of sheep (Ovis aries)

AV Pike, RF Ker and RM Alexander
School of Biology, University of Leeds, UK. a.v.l.pike@leeds.ac.uk

The time taken to rupture in cyclic fatigue tests, to a stress of 45 MPa, was used to compare the fatigue quality of tendons from sheep of varying ages. Muscle and tendon cross-sectional areas were used to calculate the stress-in-life of each tendon. For any given age, high-stressed plantaris tendons were of a higher fatigue quality than low-stressed extensor tendons. Both fatigue quality and stress-in-life increased with age for each tendon type. High-stressed tendons are subjected to large increases in stress-in-life during growth, and fatigue quality increased significantly with this stress. This relationship was not seen, however, in low-stressed tendons, which are not subjected to a comparable range of stresses over time. It is possible that cells modify tendon fatigue quality in response to tendon loading history. Whilst Young's modulus was seen to increase with age, no difference was detected between high- and low-stressed tendons.




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2000