Fig. 5.

Effect of Decorin and Biglycan Knockdown on Patellar Tendon Collagen Fibril Diameter. Tendon microstructure was examined using transmission electron microscopy to measure collagen fibril diameter (a, n = 4/genotype/age). After obtaining the fibril diameter values, relative frequency distributions were created for each genotype at 370 d and 570 d for comparisons (b). Alterations were consistently present after SLRP knockdown at 300d relative to WT (c), however I-Dcn^-/-/Bgn^-/- tendons were the only group with no alterations to the collagen fibril distribution compared to WT at 570 d (d). Data shown as median with the box containing quartiles 1–3 and the range spanning the minimum to maximum collagen fibril diameter. Bars indicate significance of p < 0.05/3. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to compare the WT fibril diameter distribution to each experimental group.