TROTTER, John A: Structure-function considerations of muscle-tendon junctions.

Skeletal muscle fibers transmit force across the cell membrane to the extracellular matrix and ultimately to tendons. Force transmission may occur both along the lateral surfaces of muscle fibers and at their ends. Sites of force-transmission are morphologically and compositionally specialized for this function. They are also specialized to provide stress-information that feeds into the synthetic programs of the muscle cell. It is obvious that a detailed understanding of the structures and functions of muscle-tendon junctions is essential if we wish to tell a complete story about how muscles move joints and how they respond to mechanical stresses in tendons. The details of the story may lead to new concepts in biology and to new designs for biomimetic and biomedical devices.