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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Matrix Biol. 2013 Dec 4;34:179–184. doi: 10.1016/j.matbio.2013.11.005

Figure 5. Schematic of Collagen Enzyme Mechano-Kinetic Automated Test System (CEMKATS).

Figure 5

A collagen fiber is clamped at both ends and stretched using two axially opposed computer-controlled stepper motors until a pre-calculated clamp-to-clamp fiber elongation (strain) is reached. The motors then stop, fixing the clamp-to-clamp strain for the duration of the experiment. The resulting tensile load is measured using a 250 gm load cell and data acquisition computer. An inverted microscope is used to magnify two marks on the fiber while a digital camera records images using a second computer. The real-time in-situ fiber strain is determined from the distance separating the two marks on the fiber, shown as Local Strain Measurements in the figure. Figure adapted from Wyatt et al. (2009).