Primary cilia are organelles found singularly on almost every cell in the body, including tenocytes. Tendon is a hierarchical, composite structure, and previous work from our group has suggested that the cell populations in the inter-fascicular matrix (IFM) may be different from those within the fascicle matrix (FM). This study investigated how stress deprivation influenced the primary cilia of both cell types, and the mechanics of the IFM and the FM. Rat tail tendons were dissected and then either tested immediately (fresh), or maintained in media for 1 week, either stress deprived or at 4% static strain. Fascicles and IFM were then either, fixed and imaged to determine cilia length (n = 80–160 cilia per group from across 3 rats), or mechanically tested to determine the static and viscoelastic properties of both the fascicles and the IFM (n = 6–8 per group).Introduction
Materials and Methods
