Figure 2

The experimental design of the strain-controlled loading. Upon dissection, the tendons are fixed into the loading device and allowed to equilibrate in the high-glucose DMEM cell culture medium for three days. Then, the specimens are loaded for one hour each day for two days followed by a resting day and another two days of testing. After a two-day rest another two days of testing are performed (a total of 6 days of loading, i.e. 6 hours) before the tendons are harvested and prepared for analysis. Red circle = timepoints for media changes.