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. 2021 Nov 26;7(48):eabi5584. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi5584

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Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

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Fig. 4. — (A) To examine compositional contributions to tendon-to-bone attachment strength and toughness, samples were immersed in decalcifying agent to completely remove mineral (left) or in chondroitinase ABC for 5 days to chemically digest proteoglycans (right). (B) Postfailure contrast-enhanced microCT scanning showed that loss of mineral or proteoglycan did not significantly alter the failure modes of the tendon enthesis. Most samples failed via bone avulsion, while a small number of samples depleted in proteoglycans failed at the edge of unmineralized fibrocartilage (pink arrow). Scale bars, 500 μm. (C to E) Quasi-static mechanical testing revealed significant differences in mechanical behavior of tendon entheses when mineral was removed. (C) Strength (failure force) versus displacement behavior. (D) Removal of mineral led to a marked decrease in strength; removal of proteoglycan led to a relatively small decrease in strength. (E) Removal of mineral led to a significant decrease in toughness; removal of proteoglycan did not affect enthesis toughness. (*P < 0.05 and ****P < 0.0001, ANOVA followed by the Dunnett’s multiple comparison test).