Extended Data Fig. 6: Mechanical characterization after MRI analysis to verify the reproducibility and stability of ex vivo ECM tuning by changes in the osmotic environment ion concentration.
Additional mechanical characterization of the contralateral tendons after MRI scans (post MRI) shows the reproducibility of the experiments, as no significant differences were observed compared with the mechanical characterization of the ipsilateral tendons. This was tested for both HYPO and ISO swelling conditions, and proves the stability of the effect even at day 5 after tissue excision. The 5 days between excision and measurement comprised 3 days of storage at 4 °C and 2 days of incubation with one MRI scan in between. a, Elastic modulus E and b, stress relaxation half time τ0.50. Statistical analyses were performed for n = 8 biological samples using two-tailed t-tests to compare HYPO and HYPO-post MRI conditions, and two-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare ISO and ISO-post MRI conditions. Box plot information: box limits show 25th and 75th percentiles, box middle lines show medians, and whiskers show minimum and maximum values.
