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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Preparation of Rat Tail Tendons for Biomechanical and Mechanobiological Studies
Published on: July 30, 2010
Characterization of moderate tendinopathy in ex vivo stress-deprived rat tail tendons
Leila Jafari1, Martin Savard2, Fernand Gobeil2
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, J1K 2R1, Canada.
Background:
Stress deprivation (SD) has frequently been used as a model to study tendinopathy. Most of these studies have investigated either short-term (early tendinopathy) or long-term SD (advanced tendinopathy), while the transient mid-term SD has been given less attention. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to characterize mid-term SD.
Methods:
To this end, live, healthy rat tail tendons (RTTs) were harvested and cultured without mechanical stress and then were divided into five groups based on their culture time (fresh, 2-day SD, 4-day SD, 6-day SD, and 10-day SD). For each group, the tendons were subjected to traction testing and pathohistology, immunohistochemistry, and viability assays.
Results:
Our results showed that 4 days of SD resulted in moderate pathological changes in RTTs. These changes included increases in the space area between fibers, cell density, and fiber tortuosity as well as a decrease in collagen density and elongation of cell nuclei. No changes in the stress at failure of tendons were observed at this time point.
Conclusions:
This simple ex vivo model is expected to be useful for studying the progression of tendinopathy as well as for testing potential mechanobiological or pharmacological therapy strategies to stop or reverse the progression of the pathology.
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