Fig. 3.

Network reorganization in response to off-axis and equibiaxial stretch. Depicted are networks from three different regions in the cruciform before stretch (Center) and their response to increasing stretch via off-axis stretch (Center to Left) and equibiaxial stretch (Center to Right). Network reorganization occurs in a location-dependent manner and a range of intranetwork forces develops. A histogram of the fiber stretch ratios in the deformed networks reveals that some fibers are in compression, even though a macroscopic tensile load is applied to the sample. Solid red lines show the macroscopic, tissue-level stretch ratio (λ_y) in the y-direction (vertical axis). λ_y = 1.15 at d = 1.00 mm, λ_y = 1.21 at d = 1.50 mm, and λ_y = 1.29 at d = 2.0 mm.