Extrafibrillar diffusion and intrafibrillar swelling at the nanoscale are associated with stress relaxation in the soft collagenous matrix tissue of tendons
Abstract
The mechanical behaviour of hierarchically structured soft biological tissues like tendon and cartilage shows time-dependent properties. The origin of this phenomenon is undoubtedly related to the nano- and microscale levels of structural hierarchy, but the exact mechanism is not known. Understanding this phenomenon could help us understand normal physiological tendon mechanics and how these alter with tendon degeneration, inflammation or disease. Here we measure the micro- and nanoscale structural changes in tendons during stress relaxation, using a multi-scale strain