Negative impact of disuse and unloading on tendon enthesis structure and function

Exposure to chronic skeletal muscle disuse and unloading that astronauts experience results in deconditioning bone remodeling. Tendons involved the transmission of force from muscles skeleton are also affected. Understanding changes occur muscle, tendon, is an essential step toward limiting or preventing deleterious effects reduction mechanical load. Numerous reviews have reported this on both bone, a lesser extent tendon. However, none focused tendon enthesis, tendon-to-bone attachment site. While enthesis structure appears be determined by stress, little known about plasticity. Our review first looks at relationship between entheses exploring how tensile compressive loads determine influence composition. The second part addresses structure, composition, function. We discuss possibility spaceflight-induced remodeling could impact capacity withstand stress its potential weakness. Finally, we point out altered strength expose risk developing enthesopathies.