Rest length and compliance of non-immobilised and immobilised rabbit soleus muscle and tendon |
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Authors: | R D Herbert and J Crosbie |
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Institution: | (1) School of Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, P.O. Box 170, Lidcombe 2141 New South Wales, Australia, AU |
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Abstract: | The first aim of this study was to measure the contributions of muscle and tendon to the total compliance of resting muscle-tendon
units. A second aim was to determine whether the decrease in muscle-tendon unit rest length produced by prolonged immobilisation
in a shortened position is mediated primarily by adaptations of the muscle or tendon. One ankle joint from each of five rabbits
was immobilised in a plantarflexed position for 14 days. The passive length-tension properties of soleus muscle fascicles
and tendons from both hindlimbs were measured using a video-based tensile-testing system. In non-immobilised muscles, muscle
fascicle strains exceeded tendon strains by up to four times. However, because the rest length of tendon was much greater
than that of muscle fascicles, changes in tendon length accounted for nearly half of the total change in muscle-tendon unit
length. The rest length of immobilised muscle-tendon units was less than that of non-immobilised muscle-tendon units from
contralateral limbs. Most of this difference was attributable to a change in the rest length of the tendon; there was little
change in the rest length of muscle fascicles. It is concluded that the tendon is responsible for a large part of the compliance
of rabbit soleus muscle-tendon units at physiological resting tensions, and that adaptation of tendon rest length is the primary
mechanism by which the rabbit soleus shortens in response to immobilisation at short lengths.
Accepted: 7 May 1997 |
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Keywords: | Skeletal muscle Immobilisation Tendon Rest length Compliance |
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