How does the complex 3D structure of tendons emerge over development?

Tendons have an extraordinary ability to withstand loads due to their unique multi-scale complex hierarchical organization, where the collagen molecule is the basic building block. Collagen is arranged in different structural units (fibrils and fibers and fascicles) up to the organ level, which are known to stretch, slide and move relative to each other during loading. What is still not known is how the structure of the tendon emerges and develops from birth to adulthood. In this proposal, we would like to use phase contrast tomography to image tendons from the goat ranging from neonates to adult, to unravel how the different sub-units, e.g. fascicles, develop, and how the collagen fiber distribution emerges. We need to use a large animal model, as smaller animals do not have all the same structural units as humans, and this can affect the interpretation of the results. Therefore, we are applying to BM18.