Fig. 1. Study overview. (A) Rat tail tendon fascicles were loaded in creep-fatigue to 40% of the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) until tissue failure. Incremental levels of fatigue were defined as the peak cyclic (creep) strain at 20, 50, and 80% of cycles to failure. (B) To label and quantify denatured collagen, we stained mechanically loaded fascicles with fluorescent CHP, which hybridizes to unfolded collagen ? chains. The amount of denatured collag...
A new publication in The American Journal of Sports Medicine used CHPs to evaluate the structural integrity leading to noncontact ACL failure as a result of strenuous repetitive impulsive athletic maneuvers. CHPs were used to visualize the molecular level damage to the collagen triple helix and show that repeated mechanical loading weakens the ACL. The figure shows the untested contralateral, unloaded knee (control knee) (A) and the mechanically tested...
New work being done by Dr. Robert Mauck's Lab at UPenn utilized CHPs to examine the effect that fatigue loading has on localized tissue mechanics. Their team discovered that although fatigue loading resulted in collagen kinking and denaturation, there was no difference in the local tissue modulus when compared to fresh controls. The image below shows how CHPs were used to visualize the collagen denaturation from fatigue loading and compare with the fres...
