In vivo passive mechanical behaviour of muscle fascicles and tendons in human gastrocnemius muscle–tendon units

• Published in: The Journal of physiology Vol. 589; no. 21; pp. 5257 - 5267
• Main Authors: Herbert, Robert D., Clarke, Jillian, Kwah, Li Khim, Diong, Joanna, Martin, Josh, Clarke, Elizabeth C., Bilston, Lynne E., Gandevia, Simon C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2011; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc; Blackwell Science Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Ankle Joint - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Muscle Relaxation; Muscle, Skeletal - diagnostic imaging; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Muscle, Skeletal - physiopathology; Rotation; Skeletal Muscle and Exercise; Tendons; Tendons - diagnostic imaging; Tendons - physiology; Tendons - physiopathology; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonography; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0022-3751; 1469-7793; 1469-7793
• DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.212175

Non‐Technical Summary  Relaxed skeletal muscles behave like springs that resist joint motion. There have been few in vivo studies of the spring‐like properties of relaxed muscles. In this study, ultrasound was used to image human calf muscles while muscle length was changed by rotating the ankle of relaxed subjects. The muscles of some subjects buckled at short lengths. At short lengths most muscle fascicles (bundles of muscle cells) are slack. As the muscle is lengthened the slack is progressively taken up, first in some fascicles then in others. The increase in muscle length is due partly to increases in the length of muscle fascicles but most of the increase in muscle length occurs in the tendons.   Ultrasound imaging was used to measure the length of muscle fascicles in human gastrocnemius muscles while the muscle was passively lengthened and shortened by moving the ankle. In some subjects the muscle belly ‘buckled’ at short lengths. When the gastrocnemius muscle–tendon unit was passively lengthened from its shortest in vivo length by dorsiflexing the ankle, increases in muscle–tendon length were not initially accompanied by increases in muscle fascicle lengths (fascicle length remained constant), indicating muscle fascicles were slack at short muscle–tendon lengths. The muscle–tendon length at which slack is taken up differs among fascicles: some fascicles begin to lengthen at very short muscle–tendon lengths whereas other fascicles remain slack over a large range of muscle–tendon lengths. This suggests muscle fascicles are progressively ‘recruited’ and contribute sequentially to muscle–tendon stiffness during passive lengthening of the muscle–tendon unit. Even above their slack lengths muscle fascicles contribute only a small part (<∼30%) of the total change in muscle–tendon length. The contribution of muscle fascicles to muscle–tendon length increases with muscle length. The novelty of this work is that it reveals a previously unrecognised phenomenon (buckling at short lengths), posits a new mechanism of passive mechanical properties of muscle (recruitment of muscle fascicles), and confirms with high‐resolution measurements that the passive compliance of human gastrocnemius muscle–tendon units is due largely to the tendon. It would be interesting to investigate if adaptations of passive properties of muscles are associated with changes in the distribution of muscle lengths at which fascicles fall slack.