3D Tenocyte Nuclei
Three types of tenocyte have been described in the literature by various authors. It has been proposed that the relative proportion of the types of tenocytes may change depending on the physiological or pathological state of the tendon. The superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) of the equine athlete is prone to exercise-related injury. Acute injury is known as 'bowed tendon', as swelling within the tendon causes it to take on a bent shape.
Healing of bowed tendons is poor, with a guarded prognosis for return to athletic form. The ability of tendon to adapt to exercise is poorly defined. Tenocyte types may become more or less numerous, depending on the forces acting in the tendon, the animal's stage of development etc. However, initial attempts to quantify tenocyte types using conventional 2D microscopy were thwarted due to difficulty in positively identifying tenocytes as being one type or other.
This study was undertaken to develop a method thereby tenocytes could be visualised and typed in 3D using confocal microscopy. Once a method had been developed, a small number of tenocyte nuclei were measured. Initial results suggest a bimodal distribution of nuclear lengths (Figure 3.2B), indicating that two types of tenocyte may exist in normal equine SDFT. However the types are not clearly different, and probably exist on a continuum of nuclear lengths. 3D visualisation also made it possible to show that tenocytes may look more or less wide depending on their rotational position relative to the viewer (Figure 3.1).
Figures from the Dissertation
The whole dissertation (2.5 MB)
Animations from the confocal microscope
Made in Amira 3D visualisation software
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