title: Changes in the biomechanical properties of the rat interparietal suture incident to continuous tensile force application.
abstract: This study was designed to investigate the relation between the biomechanical behaviour of rat interparietal sutures and expansion forces placed on them. Thirty-five 4-week-old rats were divided into four groups, a control group and three experimental groups subjected to mechanical expansion of the interparietal sutures with a tensile force for 15, 30 and 50 h. After expansion, the parietal bones, including the interparietal suture, were dissected as specimens for tensile tests. Under tension, the relaxed stress-strain plots in the control group could be better fitted by a power of 2.00, and the relaxed moduli were 0.64 and 4.51 MPa at the lower and the higher applied strains, respectively. An initial fall in the relaxed moduli at 15 h of expansion was followed by an increase over time. It is therefore suggested that the biomechanical behaviour of the interparietal sutures is influenced by the duration of an external force.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, Hiroshima University School of Dentistry, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, 734-8553, Hiroshima, Japan. etanaka@ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyawaki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: del Pozo
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000502:physiology*; D004548:Elasticity; D008297:Male; D010294:Parietal Bone; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength; D013997:Time Factors