Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
Comparative Medicine Institute, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Oct 23;14(10):e0219637. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219637. eCollection 2019.
Prior studies have analyzed growth of musculoskeletal tissues between species or across body segments; however, little research has assessed the differences in similar tissues within a single joint. Here we studied changes in the length and cross-sectional area of four ligaments and tendons, (anterior cruciate ligament, patellar tendon, medial collateral ligament, lateral collateral ligament) in the tibiofemoral joint of female Yorkshire pigs through high-field magnetic resonance imaging throughout growth. Tissue lengths increased by 4- to 5-fold from birth to late adolescence across the tissues while tissue cross-sectional area increased by 10-20-fold. The anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament showed allometric growth favoring change in length over change in cross-sectional area while the patellar tendon and medial collateral ligament grow in an isometric manner. Additionally, changes in the length and cross-sectional area of the anterior cruciate ligament did not increase as much as in the other ligaments and tendon of interest. Overall, these findings suggest that musculoskeletal soft tissue morphometry can vary within tissues of similar structure and within a single joint during post-natal growth.
先前的研究分析了不同物种或身体部位之间的肌肉骨骼组织生长情况；然而，很少有研究评估过同一关节内相似组织的差异。在这里，我们通过高场磁共振成像研究了雌性约克夏猪膝关节内的四条韧带和肌腱（前交叉韧带、髌腱、内侧副韧带、外侧副韧带）在生长过程中的长度和横截面积的变化。组织长度从出生到青春期后期增加了 4 到 5 倍，而组织横截面积增加了 10 到 20 倍。前交叉韧带和外侧副韧带表现出异速生长，有利于长度的变化而不是横截面积的变化，而髌腱和内侧副韧带以等长的方式生长。此外，前交叉韧带的长度和横截面积的变化并没有像其他感兴趣的韧带和肌腱那样增加那么多。总的来说，这些发现表明，肌肉骨骼软组织形态学在出生后生长过程中可以在相似结构的组织内以及单个关节内发生变化。
