Figure 4.

Repetitive static stretch protocol uncovers viscoelastic properties and tissue strain recovery: (A) The test protocol provides four cycles of 1 h at strain position followed by 1 h at zero position; (B–D) The stress curves of one representative experiment for each model system are shown. Tissue stress was calculated from the estimated cross-sectional area after isolation and fixation (see Figure 3). Data was recorded every 0.1 s; (E) Images on the right were taken at indicated time points after moving back to zero position. The tissue dimension before and during stretch are indicated on the left. The visible bending and length recovery (indicated by red arrowheads) was reproducibly observed over several samples and all repetitive cycles.