Acute Recovery of Patellar Tendon From Heat-Induced Shrinkage and Its Inhibition by Cross-Linking

Abstract

There are two important factors that accompany heat-induced shrinkage of collagenous tissues: mechanical property degradation and partial recovery from the shrunken length (elongation) upon returning to room temperature (defined here as acute recovery). These undesirable factors reduce the efficacy of thermal therapies. We applied chemical cross-linking adjuvant to thermal treatment on New Zealand White rabbit patellar tendon complexes to explore the feasibility of reducing the impact of these undesirable side-effects. Our results have shown that with exposure to 0.5% w/v glutaraldehyde solution during heating, the recovery response of the patellar tendon tissue was decreased, and the mechanical properties of the tissue were significantly improved.