Fig. 1.

Mouse tibialis anterior (TA) muscle-tendon unit positioned in mechanical test fixture. A: typical measurement regions along the tendon. Mechanical properties were determined at the distal (points 1 and 2), central (points 3 and 4), and proximal (points 5 and 6) tendon regions. Overall tendon response was also measured (points 1 and 6). Samples were loaded to 10% grip-to-grip strain at a rate of 0.01/s. B: close-up of distal region of the tendon showing distribution of microspheres used for optical determination of surface strains. Contrast has been increased in A and B.