Figure 1

Effect of rest-inserted stretching vs continuous stretching on mRNA expression of collagen type I (A) and III (B) and protein levels of pro-collagen I and III (C). The cells that underwent rest inserted stretching showed an increased mRNA expression of collagen type I ( A ) at 8 h post stretching (p < 0.05) compared to continuously loaded cells. Collagen type III mRNA expression did not significantly change (B). The pro-collagen type I was significantly greater (p < 0.05) in the rest insertion group compared to the continuously loaded, while the continuous group had an increased (p < 0.05) pro-collagen type III value at 24 hours post stretching ( C ). The *indicates a significant difference of p < 0.05, the ƚ indicates significant difference of p < 0.01, the error bars indicate the standard error. All data points from each group were normalized to unstretched controls harvested at every time point.