Connective tissue research needs

What is needed today is less deductive guess-work and more facts. Here is a fascinating problem two different materials, ascorbic acid and the 11-oxysteroids, both concerned with the health of connective tissue and both concentrated in the same gland. Very possibly they are concerned with completely different aspects of connective metabolism more research is needed to find out. 

For reasons apparent from the previous discussion, the nature of the chemical linkage between polysaccharidic and lignin elements in woody tissues is still not well understood. More research is clearly needed. Knowledge of the nature of the lignin carbohydrate connections is of importance for the understanding of the structure and the reactivity of lignin in situ. 

Tendons connect muscle to bone and transmit forces from the former to the latter, often in a cyclical behavior. As tendons such as the Achilles tendon are needed to transmit forces up to 9 kN, the maximum tensile strength of the tendon is also required to be large, and it can vary from 60 to 100 MPa (Butler et al. 2004 Johnson et al. 1994). Unfortunately, with these stresses come routine injuries to athletes or the general population and the tendon itself does not possess strong individual healing capabilities (Astrom 1998 Kannus and Jozsa 1991 Khan et al. 1999). This necessitates the research and development of tissue engineered tendon constructs. 

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