Extended Data Fig. 10: Signal decay curves in ovine ex vivo Achilles tendon samples in fresh condition.
Two Achilles tendons, excised from one animal, were stored under conditions avoiding dehydration, as described in the Methods section, and heated to body temperature (~37 °C, using heat pads) for the scans. Decay curves of two tissue samples are shown by orange and blue solid lines, respectively, connecting the normalized signal intensity measured at different echo times (filled circles). For echo times beyond 1.5 ms, the signal intensity of the samples dropped below 10%, remaining at a level comparable to image noise. Red lines show a mono-exponential fit. The decay curves closely align with a mono-exponential model, with no indication of bi-component signal characteristics. \({{\rm{T}}}_{2}^{\ast }\) of the ex vivo samples was quantified as 0.55 ms.
