Tendons and ligaments

Tendons

soft tissue connecting skeletal muscle to bone

dense regular collagen I fibers

Where tendons attach to muscle….

muscle fibers decrease

cross sectional area decreases

Fascicles of ______ _______.

collagen fibrils

What is the “crimp” in tendons from?

fibrils

how can you alter the “crimp profile” of a fibril?

exercise!

What increases as fibril diameter increases?

tensile strength

What contributes to tensile strength?

size of crimp

diameter of fibril

and numbers of cross links

Ligaments

connect bone to bone

less collagenous percentage and more proteoglycan

Failure occurs when …

over stretching occurs

margin of safety

the amount of stretching, squashing, or bending a tissue can withstand before failure or damage

energy vs non energy storing tendons and ligaments

energy storing tissues are not as stretchy

What can cause tendon rupture

coordinated or uncoordinated muscle action

limb coordination (long pasterns, over at knee)

Natural or modified gait patterns

systemic hormonal and pharmaceutical influences

How to assess the failure of the tendon

examine the fluid around tendon sheath and muscle surrounding

-mri, nuclear scintigraphy, necropsy

bowed tendons

disordered fibril tissue

increased cellularity

reduced collagen content (iii instead of I)

Why is warming up so important?

packs collagen molecules together and redistributes water within the matrix

primes the tissue for exercise!