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Fig. 1. Representation of the experimental set-up. (A) Medial view of the GM and PL
in the experimental set-up after biceps femoris muscle, semitendinosus and
gracilis posticus muscles were removed. The GM and GL were separated by
cutting fibres in such a way that the GM was not damaged. The GM is made
transparant in the image to show the position of the PL. The soleus, deep
flexors, peroneal muscles and muscles in the anterior crural compartment were
left intact, but for clarity are not shown. Only extramuscular tissues around
the GM were left intact (see B-D). Image A also shows the sciatic nerve (SN)
and the femoral artery (FA) approaching GM laterally and medially respectively
and entering GM proximally as a neuro-vascular tract (i.e. nerve, bloodvessel
and surrounding connective tissue). Proximally, the dissected origin of the GM
was attached to a force transducer using a metal rod (represented by an
arrow). In the initial condition, the distal tendons of the GM and PL, the
epitendinous tissues and a piece of the calcaneal bone were connected to a
force transducer with a metal rod (represented by an arrow). The femur was
clamped in such a way that the knee could be fixed at an angle of
approximately 120°, with the lower leg horizontally. (B) Extramuscular
tissues around the distal GM and PL tendons, i.e. remnants of the general
fascia, epimysium, neuro-vascular tract and compartmental fascia (referred to
as epitendinous tissues and indicated by an arrow). Medial view. Note that
these tissues are exposed only for clarity by lifting the piece of the
calcaneal bone. (C) Extramuscular tissues around the GM and PL muscle bellies,
i.e. remnants of the general fascia and epimysium. Dorsomedial view. This
image does not provide a representation of the position of the muscles in the
experiment. For clarity, the GM and PL are pulled apart to expose the
extramuscular tissues (indicated by an arrow and broken lines). (D) Medial
view of the dissected origin of GM. The origin of GM was dissected with a
piece of the femur. The image also shows a part of the neuro-vascular tract
embedding the femoral artery approaching and entering GM proximally (indicated
by an arrow). The sciatic nerve approaches the GM from the lateral side and is
therefore not visible.
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