Tendon Responses Depending on Different Anatomical Locations

The objectives of this work focus on the differences in responses of paired tendons from different anatomical locations. Tendon specimens were obtained from the hindlimbs of canines and frozen to -70$^{\circ}C$. After being thawed, specimens were mounted in the immersion bath, preloaded to 0.13N, and then subjected to 3% or 4% of the initial length at a strain rate of 5%/sec. It was found that the mechanical responses of anatomically paired tendons were nearly the same within each pair but different between pairs of tendons from different anatomical locations. Although flexor tendons had much larger cross-sectional area than the others, such as peroneus or extensor tendons, the stiffness of the flexor tendons were much lower than the others throughout their stress-strain responses. The nature and causes of these differences in the stiffness are not fully known. However, it is clear that differences in the mechanical response of tendons and other connective tissues are significant to the musculoskeletal performance.