Cell Biology

Question 1

What is the primary function of tendon?

Answer 1

To transmit force from muscle to bone OR, to resist tension.

Question 2

What type of tissue is a tendon?

Answer 2

Dense Connective

Question 3

What is tendon composed of?

Answer 3

ECM - which creates the mechanical properties of the tissue

Fibroblasts - which produce the ECM (made up of collagen and elastic fibers, ground substance)

Question 4

What is mechanotransduction?

Answer 4

Transduction of mechanical stimuli into a cellular signal and response.

Question 5

How are mechanical stimuli sensed?

Answer 5

Collagen fibers in the ECM which attach to the cytoskeleton

Stretch-activated ion channels

Question 6

How are mechanical stimuli transduced?

Answer 6

Direct structural links between cytoskeleton and nucleus

Intracellular signaling

Question 7

How do transduced signals influence gene expression?

Answer 7

They do this to increase/decrease production of ECM components to maintain homeostasis

Question 8

What is Physical Stress Theory?

Answer 8

Changes in the relative level of physical stress cause a predictable response in all biological tissue.

PHYSICAL STRESS -> PREDICTABLE RESPONSE