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Updated: Mar 12, 2026
Biomechanical Testing of Murine Tendons
Published on: October 15, 2019
Does a different dose of gamma irradiation have the same effect on five different types of tendon allografts? - a
Gyorgy Hangody1, Gábor Szebényi2, Bence Abonyi1
1Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Uzsoki Hospital, Uzsoki Street 29-41, 1145, Budapest, Hungary.
Introduction:
The goals of our study were to evaluate the biomechanical differences between five tendons and the changes in biomechanical properties caused by irradiation.
Methods:
Achilles, quadriceps, semitendinosus + gracilis (STG), tibialis anterior (TA) and the peroneus longus (PL) were harvested from 30 donors. Group A contained 50 tendons without gamma irradiation. The groups were irradiated with a dose of 21 kGy (group B 50 tendons) and with a dose of 42 kGy (group C 50 tendons). The grafts were soaked in a radio-protectant solution and frozen at -80 °C. Cyclic loading tests were performed followed by load to failure tests. Young modulus of elasticity, maximum force, strain at tensile strength and strain at rupture were calculated.
Results:
The Achilles tendons had significantly lower Young modulus than the TA (p = 0.0036) in group A. The Achilles showed significantly lower than PL (p = 0.000042) and TA (p = 0.00142) in group B and C. The quadriceps and the ST (p = 0.0037) provided poorer values than the TA (p = 0.0432) in group C. We found no difference in maximum loads among the tendons in group A. The maximum load of the Achilles and quadriceps showed better results than the PL (p = 0.0016), (p = 0.0018) and the STG (p = 0.0066), (p = 0.0019) in group C. The TA had similar results like the Achilles and quadriceps.
Discussion And Conclusions:
The vulnerability of gamma irradiation of TA was less than Achilles and quadriceps tendons.
