Figure 6. Regional mechanical characterization of diaphragmatic tissue strips.

Elastic modulus, E_t (A), and relaxation time constant, τ₁ (B), for increasing strain (ɛ) levels grouped by direction of fibre orientation and by anatomical location. Black bars: strain applied longitudinally to the fibres axis (L); white bars: strain applied transversally to the fibres axis (T); grey bars: strips excised from the ventral zone (V); striped bars: strips excised from the dorsal zone (D). C, average elastic modulus before failure, E_t,f, of all samples grouped by fibre direction or location. E_t,f was measured as the slope of the linear portion of the curve before failure, as graphically shown in Fig. 2C. *Significantly different (P < 0.01) from longitudinally elongated fibres; ^§significantly different (P < 0.01) from ventral fibres.