Davis's law

This article is about anatomy and physiology. For the journalism maxim sometimes known as Davis's law, see Betteridge's law of headlines.

Davis's law is used in anatomy and physiology to describe how soft tissue models along imposed demands. It is similar to Wolff's law, which applies to osseous tissue. It is a physiological principle stating that soft tissue heal according to the manner in which they are mechanically stressed.[1]

It is also an application of the Mechanostat model of Harold Frost which was originally developed to describe the adaptational response of bones; however – as outlined by Harold Frost himself – it also applies to fibrous collagenous connective tissues, such as ligaments, tendons and fascia.[2][3] The "stretch-hypertrophy rule" of that model states: "Intermittent stretch causes collagenous tissues to hypertrophy until the resulting increase in strength reduces elongation in tension to some minimum level".[4] Similar to the behavior of bony tissues this adaptational response occurs only if the mechanical strain exceeds a certain threshold value. Harold Frost proposed that for dense collagenous connective tissues the related threshold values are around 23 Newton/mm2 or 4% strain elongation.[5]

  1. ^ Ellenbecker, Todd, "Effective Functional Progressions in Sport Rehabilitation", Human Kinetics 2009, ISBN 0-7360-6381-1
  2. ^ Frost, Harold "New targets for fascial, ligament and tendon research: A perspective from the Utah paradigm of skeletal physiology" J Musculoskel Neuron Interact 2003; 3(3):201–209
  3. ^ Frost, Harold "The physiology of cartilagenous, fibrous, and bony tissue. C.C. Thomas, 1972
  4. ^ Frost, Harold "The physiology of cartilagenous, fibrous, and bony tissue. C.C. Thomas, 1972, page 176
  5. ^ Frost, Harold "Does the anterior cruciate have a modeling threshold? A case for the affirmative". J Musculoskel Neuron Interact 2001; 2(2):131–136