Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
J Biomech. 2011 Feb 24;44(4):771-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2010.10.044. Epub 2010 Nov 18.
The importance of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in muscle is widely recognized, since ECM plays a central role in proper muscle development (Buck and Horwitz, 1987), tissue structural support (Purslow, 2002), and transmission of mechanical signals between fibers and tendon (Huijing, 1999). Since substrate biomechanical properties have been shown to be critical in the biology of tissue development and remodeling (Engler et al., 2006; Gilbert et al., 2010), it is likely that mechanics are critical for ECM to perform its function. Unfortunately, there are almost no data available regarding skeletal muscle ECM viscoelastic properties. This is primarily due to the impossibility of isolating and testing muscle ECM. Therefore, this note presents a new method to quantify viscoelastic ECM modulus by combining tests of single muscle fibers and fiber bundles. Our results demonstrate that ECM is a highly nonlinearly elastic material, while muscle fibers are linearly elastic.
细胞外基质（ECM）在肌肉中的重要性是被广泛认可的，因为 ECM 在肌肉的正常发育（Buck 和 Horwitz，1987）、组织结构支撑（Purslow，2002）以及纤维和肌腱之间的机械信号传递（Huijing，1999）中发挥着核心作用。由于已有研究表明，基质的力学性能对于组织发育和重塑的生物学过程至关重要（Engler 等人，2006；Gilbert 等人，2010），因此力学对于 ECM 发挥其功能很可能也是至关重要的。不幸的是，关于骨骼肌 ECM 的黏弹性性质的数据几乎没有。这主要是因为不可能分离和测试肌肉 ECM。因此，本说明提出了一种新的方法，通过结合单个肌纤维和纤维束的测试来量化黏弹性 ECM 模量。我们的结果表明，ECM 是一种高度非线性弹性材料，而肌肉纤维是线性弹性的。
