Tensile properties of wounded <i>vs.</i> unwounded abdominal wall.

<p>(A) Typical plot of tensile force vs. elongation in the disruption of a single test strip (blue curve) generated during tension testing of a test strip from uninjured abdominal wall loaded, at the elongation rate of 2 mm/min. The black straight line is the calculated slope of the curve in the elastic region. (B) Maximal tension sustained by tissue test strips <i>vs.</i> postwounding day (PWD) of the injured mouse abdominal wall compared with maximal tension <i>vs.</i> age of uninjured abdominal wall from age-matched control mice. Each data point represents the mean maximal tension (± SD) of 14–24 test strips. (C) Tensile stiffness <i>vs.</i> PWD for the same specimens as in panel B. Tensile stiffness was calculated as the slope of the straight line in Figure 2A, and is a measure of the resistance of the tissue to elongation under the applied tensile force. This is not the modulus of elasticity, since the curve in Figure 2A is not a stress <i>vs.</i> strain curve.