Effect of Adjuvant Induced Arthritis on the Mechanical Properties and Thermal Behavior of Skin and Tendon

In rats with adjuvant induced arthritis, the mechanical properties and thermal behavior of the skin and tendon were studied during the acute and chronic phase of the disease. Among the mechanical properties, the tensile strength and elastic modulus were found to decrease markedly both in the skin and tendon of arthritic rats while the extensibility did not show any significant change during the course of the disease. The thermal behavior, namely, shrinkage temperature, denaturation temperature, isometric tension and the temperature at isometric tension were decreased appreciably both in the skin and tendon of arthritic rats, the decrease being prominent during the chronic phase of arthritis. Both the mechanical properties and thermal behavior were correlated with biochemical parameters such as total collagen content and the ratio of the total activity of 14C-hydroxyproline of soluble collagens to insoluble collagen. The results support the concept of impaired collagen crosslinking in adjuvant induced arth...