Abstract
The major central part of elastic ligaments is constituted by longitudinally orientated elastic fibers, each surrounded by a sheath of spirally orientated collagen fibrils with an intervening thin layer of microfibrils. In the terminal region of such ligaments the orientation of the collagen fibrils is longitudinal and the elastic fibers end within the ligament without any attachment to bone. The ligament response to a first, unphysiologically high load produces a continuous stress-strain curve. On the other hand, the curve becomes biphasic after repeated applications of such loads. It is suggested that three factors are involved in this mechanical response, namely, frictional forces between elastic fibers and their sheaths, compressive forces exerted upon elastic fibers by their sheaths, and intrasheat friction due to rearrangement of the constituent collagen fibrils.
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